The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) highlighted yesterday Wednesday that the war between Israel and Hamas that has been raging in the Gaza Strip since October 7 is affecting the lives and education of children in Lebanon.

Dozens of schools in southern Lebanon have been closed since October 8, when clashes between Palestinian organizations, the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah and the Israeli army began to escalate, UNICEF explained in a press release.

He added that student attendance at schools that remain open but are located near the Lebanon/Israel border is low.

UNICEF pointed out that this new crisis adds to the pre-existing one: there were already heaps of problems for many children in Lebanon, as amid a rapidly deteriorating economic situation in the country, some of them (at least 16%) had already left school to go to find a job at a very young age.

This twin “horrible crisis is eroding the childhoods of hundreds of thousands of children. Its burden crushes children’s dreams and deprives them of their education, happiness and future,” said Edouard Begbender, UNICEF representative in Lebanon.

He added that the suffering endured by children in Lebanon must stop.

“We must redouble our efforts to guarantee that every child in Lebanon goes to school and is educated, protected from all physical and mental violence, and given the opportunity to develop and contribute to society,” insisted Mr. Begbender.

At the end of 2019, the Mediterranean country was plunged into the worst financial crisis in its history.

The crisis is partly attributed to endemic corruption, a phenomenon that has plagued the country’s economic and political life for decades. According to the United Nations, three-quarters of the Lebanese population, which exceeds 6 million, live in poverty.