Over 400,000 Children in Lebanon Displaced in 3 Weeks by War: UN

Beirut: More than 400,000 children in Leban have been displaced in past three weeks, a top official with U.N. children's ncy said Monday, warning of a “lost generation” in small country grappling with multiple crises and w in middle of war.

Israel has escalated its campaign against Leban-based Hezbollah militant group, including launching a ground invasion, after a year of exchanges of fire during its war with Hamas in Gaza.

fighting in Leban has driven 1.2 million people from ir homes, most of m fleeing to Beirut and elsewhere in rth over past three weeks since escalation.

Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's deputy executive director for humanitarian actions, has visited schools that have been turned into shelters to host displaced families.

“What struck me is that this war is three weeks old and so many children have been affected,” Chaiban told Associated Press in Beirut.

“As we sit here today, 1.2 million children are deprived of education. ir public schools have eir been rendered inaccessible, have been damd by war or are being used as shelters. last thing this country needs, in dition to everything else it has gone through, is risk of a lost generation.” While some Lebanese private schools are still operating, public school system has been bly affected by war, along with country's most vulnerable people such as Palestinian and Syrian refugees.

?What I'm worried about is that we have hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian children that are at risk of losing ir learning," Chaiban said.

More than 2,300 people in Leban have been killed in Israeli strikes, nearly 75% of m over last month, according to Health Ministry. In last three weeks, more than 100 children were killed and over 800 were wounded, Chaiban said.

He said displaced children are crammed into overcrowded shelters where three or four families can live in a classroom separated by a plastic sheet, and where 1,000 people can share 12 toilets. t all of m work.

Many displaced families found have set up tents along ros or on public beaches.

Most displaced children have experienced so much violence, including sounds of shelling or gunshots, that y cower at any loud ise, Chaiban said.

n re is “evacuation orders upon evacuation orders. We're at beginning, and alrey re's been a profound impact," he said.

escalation has also put over 100 primary health care facilities out of service, while 12 hospitals are eir longer working or partially functional.

Water infrastructure has also come under attack. In last three weeks, 26 water stations providing water to almost 350,000 people have been damd, Chaiban said. UNICEF is working with local authorities to repair m.

He called for civilian infrastructure to be protected. And he appealed for a cease-fire in Leban and in Gaza, saying re needs to be political will and a realization that conflict cant be resolved through military means.

“What we must do is make sure that this stops, that this mness stops, that re's a cease-fire before we get to kind of destruction and pain and suffering and death that we've seen in Gaza,” Chaiban said.

With so many needs, he said, emergency response appeal for USD 108 million in Leban has only been 8% funded three weeks into escalation.