Lebanon Update - 98 children among 1,486 people killed; 816,000 displaced : Tom McDermott

This updates our earlier reports of 5, 7 and 9 March on the crisis for children in Lebanon.

The death toll in Lebanon has risen to 687 since March 2, including 98 children and 52 women,

Lebanon’s Information Minister Paul Marcos announced on Thursday — a rise of 12 child deaths in 24 hours alone. On average, more than ten children have been killed every day since the offensive began. A total of 1,586 people have been wounded, with children accounting for at least 254 of those injuries.

The pace of displacement is equally alarming. Lebanon’s Ministry of Social Affairs reports that 816,000 people have now registered as displaced — up from 700,000 three days ago and 300,000 just one week ago — with the true figure likely higher as many families have fled without registering. Shelters accommodate only about 126,000 people, and most were at full capacity within days of opening. Tens of thousands more are sleeping in cars, on roadsides, and on Beirut’s seafront promenade — or were, until that too was struck. On Wednesday night, at least eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on the beachfront where displaced families had been sheltering in tents, in what residents described as one of the most violent nights in the capital since the offensive began.

Israeli strikes have also expanded geographically. A residential apartment building in the Aisha Bakkar neighbourhood of central Beirut — an area with no Hezbollah presence — was struck for the second time in four days on Wednesday. Overnight strikes killed seven people in Tamnin al-Tahta in the Bekaa Valley and five in the southern town of Qana. In Hennawiya, two people wounded in an initial strike were killed in a follow-up attack along with the rescue worker who came to help them. A Red Cross paramedic injured two days earlier while on a rescue mission also died of his wounds on Wednesday. Lebanon’s health ministry reports 22 attacks on medical facilities and services since March 2, with 15 health workers killed and 45 wounded.

On Thursday, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz instructed the military to expand its operations in Lebanon and warned that Israel would “take territory” if rocket fire did not stop. The statement sharpens a question that has hung over this crisis since it began: does Israel intend to make its occupation of southern Lebanon permanent — and will it ever permit the people it has displaced to return home?

That question was raised in our March 5 report, when Israeli military statements and actions on the ground first suggested a strategy of long-term depopulation rather than a temporary military operation.  Israeli forces have published maps naming specific border villages as permanent forbidden zones. Hours after issuing evacuation orders, an Israeli military spokesperson explicitly called on those who had fled not to return — and repeated that call the following day.  Thursday’s threat to “take territory” suggests that Israel intends to hold these and possibly additional areas permanently.

More than 92,000 people have already crossed into Syria since March 2, many of them for the second time. Those remaining within Lebanon are moving toward Mount Lebanon, northern districts, and parts of the Bekaa Valley, though strikes are now reaching all of those areas as well. If Israel’s hold on the south proves permanent, the choice facing these families — indefinite displacement in an overwhelmed and impoverished northern Lebanon, or return to a Syria that remains fragile and underfunded — is one from which there is no good exit.

Quotes:

“The number of killed reached 687, including 98 children and 52 women.” — Information Minister Paul Marcos, Lebanese cabinet statement, 12 March 2026

“Children are being killed and injured at a horrifying rate, families are fleeing their homes in fear, and thousands of children are now sleeping in cold and overcrowded shelters.” — Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for MENA, 9 March 2026

“Many of the people fleeing were also fleeing back in 2024. We met many who then had their homes completely destroyed, family members killed and so on. So this means that people are not waiting to see what will happen next. They leave immediately.” — Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR Representative in Lebanon