This is the heartbreaking moment children fleeing fighting in Lebanon described their terror as bombs rain down around them.
Youngsters too young to have any influence over Middle East powerbrokers are bearing the brunt of the misery.
Now charities have filmed some of them – forced to evacuate their homes – speaking about their harrowing ordeals.
Seven-year-old Nathaly said: ‘Yesterday, we heard three strikes – ‘Boom! Boom! Boom! I am afraid that we’ll be bombed and die, or my family will die, and I’ll be left alone and homeless.’
Abbas, 11, added: ‘The sound was incredibly loud, shattering our windows and destroying everything.’
A seven-year-old opened up on witnessing strikes as she and her family remain in a shelter
Abbas, 11, said of the bombs: ‘The sound was incredibly loud, shattering our windows and destroying everything’
Nine-year-old Ghazal told the UNICEF video team: ‘We keep hearing that the war won’t end soon.’
Mohammad, 13, spoke of the ‘intense fear and terror’ he felt amid the strikes
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Majdal Zoun village, in this view from the southern city of Tyre, south Lebanon, October 24
The armed conflict in Lebanon is escalating drastically and having a catastrophic impact on children across the country, according to the UN children’s charity UNICEF.
It said that, in recent days, more than 100 children have reportedly been killed in attacks, while hundreds more have been injured, and the number of people in the country who have fled their homes is now more than a million – including over 400,000 children.
Speaking at a state school in Beirut which has been turned into a shelter, nine-year-old Ghazal told the UNICEF video team: ‘We keep hearing that the war won’t end soon.’
And describing a recent attack on his neighbourhood, Mohammad, 13, said: ‘After that, about six more rockets fell. I felt intense fear and terror.’
Militant group Hezbollah continues to fire deadly rockets into Israel, and more than 60,000 Israelis have been forced to stay away from their homes in the north of their country for a year.
A month ago, Israel invaded southern Lebanon to attack rocket launching zones, and continues to target Hezbollah commanders with missile and bomb strikes in the capital Beirut.
The spiralling conflict in Lebanon has become so dire that Syrian refugees who fled the violence in their own homeland are now running away back to Syria in their thousands.
Children in both Lebanon and Israel face constant threats to their safety. UNICEF has called on all parties to protect children, who are innocent victims with no say in decisions made by their countries’ leaders.
Speaking in a hospital next to an injured eight-year-old, Amir, UNICEF’s Tess Ingram said: ‘Amir is in hospital here in Beirut preparing for his potential second surgery in a matter of days.
He was at home with his family, when a strike hit the neighbouring building. Shrapnel from that strike penetrated his back through his abdomen and some of that shrapnel still remains in his spinal cord.
Smoke billows over the UNESCO-listed port city of Tyre after Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, southern Lebanon October 23
People inspect the scene of a site hit by an Israeli air strike on the village of El-Khodr in the centre of Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley on October 24
Israel expanded operations in Lebanon nearly a year after Hezbollah began exchanging fire in support of its ally, Hamas, following the Palestinian group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, October 24
Damaged buildings targeted by an Israeli military strike on October 23, in Tyre, Lebanon
His mum told us that after the strike they were searching for Amir through the clouds of smoke and debris, hearing him call out for his uncle.
At least 80 children have been killed in the last week alone and hundreds like Amir have been injured.’
UNICEF spokesman Edouard Beigbeder said: ‘As the frequency and intensity of the bombardments in Lebanon increases, extensive damage to essential infrastructure has been recorded and dozens of medical personnel and essential service personnel have been killed.
This is disastrous for every child in Lebanon. Children in Lebanon are at growing risk of health and protection issues – including waterborne diseases like cholera, hepatitis and diarrhoea – as the continued bombardment of the country increasingly disrupts and damages essential services that families rely on.’
UNICEF said: Without access to safe water, children are at risk of contracting waterborne diseases like cholera or diarrhoea which, without adequate treatment, can result in dehydration and death. The increased pressure and disruption to health services compound these risks.
‘As the weather gets colder and wetter, thousands of people remain on the streets of Lebanon without adequate shelter, bedding or clothing.’
It comes after the IDF further ramped up the intensity of its strikes, blasting targets near a south Beirut hospital and killing 13 people, including a child, late Monday night.
Another 57 people were wounded in the attack near the Rafic Hariri Hospital, Lebanon’s biggest public health facility, located a few kilometres from the city centre, the health ministry said.
A flock of pigeons flies away as a smoke cloud erupts after a rocket fired by an Israeli war plane hit a building in Beirut’s southern suburb of Shayah on October 22, 2024
At least 13 people were killed after an Israeli airstrike near Lebanon’s largest public hospital in southern Beirut on October 22
People and members of the emergency services work at the site of an Israeli military strike near the Rafik Hariri University Hospital
People react as smoke rises from a building that was hit by an Israeli missile in Ghobeiri, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024
Smoke rises from areas targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs late on October 21
Members of the emergency services carry a body recovered at the site of an Israeli military strike near the Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH), in the Jnah District of Beirut, Lebanon, 22 October 2024
Rescuers were still searching for survivors on Tuesday morning amid fears that the toll may rise further.
There was no evacuation warning for the area around the hospital, which is densely populated and has seen an influx of people displaced from areas further south.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating, and that it had not targeted the hospital itself.
Health facilities in Lebanon have come into focus after Israel on Monday accused Hezbollah of storing money in a bunker under the Sahel hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs – a charge the facility’s head denied.
Journalists were invited to tour the hospital on Tuesday as calls mounted for the protection of medical facilities in Lebanon.
The Sahel hospital is less than two kilometres away from the Rafic Hariri facility, and both have treated casualties of Israel’s strikes.
In addition to the lethal strikes in and around medical infrastructure, Israel’s military has in recent weeks bombed what it says are banks and financial institutions utilised by Hezbollah.
One particular attack on branches of the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association – a financial institution operating with a licence from the Lebanese government that Israel claims is closely linked with Hezbollah – prompted human rights group Amnesty International to call for a war crimes investigation.
Amnesty said today that the attacks on Al-Qard Al-Hassan must be investigated as a war crime because financial institutions are considered civilian infrastructure under the laws of war unless they are being used for military purposes.
Many Lebanese citizens keep their savings at the financial institution.
‘Even if as the Israeli military alleges, the institution does provide financing to Hezbollah, it is not likely to meet the definition of a military objective, particularly for branches serving civilian customers,’ said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns.