Nearly 50,000 people have returned home in southern Lebanon, though more than 106,000 remain in collective shelters across the country, the UN said Thursday. “Nearly 50,000 people have now returned to their homes in Nabatieh and South governorates,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters, citing data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “However, more than 106,000 people remain in collective sites across the country, with many others seeking shelter elsewhere.”
“For more than three months, children in Lebanon have lived through experiences no child should ever endure. Many have fled their homes multiple times, witnessed violence first-hand, lost loved ones, and seen their schools, communities, and sense of safety shattered,” said UNICEF’s Country Representative in Lebanon Marcoluigi Corsi.
“After over 100 days of increased hostilities – since 2 March – 247 children have been killed and 992 injured, an average of 12 children killed or maimed every day. Behind these staggering figures are lives cut short or forever changed, and families facing profound loss, trauma, and uncertainty,” he added in a statement released Wednesday.
“The numbers alone cannot convey the full scale of the crisis. Beyond those killed and maimed, an entire generation of children has seen its childhood disrupted. Their sense of safety – one that every child needs to grow and thrive – remains profoundly undermined,” Corsi pointed out.
“With renewed hope for hostilities to halt, children need more than an end to violence – they require protection, sustained support to restore access to essential services, and to be offered a consistent pathway to recovery and a safer future,” he continued.
“Widespread destruction remains across large parts of the country, affecting homes, schools, and essential services – including water, sanitation and hygiene systems – further compounding already severe humanitarian needs,” the UNICEF country representative stressed.
“More than 770,000 children are experiencing heightened distress from repeated exposure to violence, loss and displacement. Many remain unable to return home because of ongoing fighting and the threat of unexploded ordnance,” Corsi continued.
“The scale of physical and psychological harm we are witnessing is unacceptable, and children continue to pay a terrible price for this conflict. Ending the violence is essential to restore access to education and other basic services and provide children with a pathway to recovery and a safer future. The true cost of this crisis will not only be measured in lives lost today, but in the opportunities missed tomorrow. Without sustained support, many children risk carrying the consequences of this war with them for years to come,” the UNICEF Chief in Beirut believes.
UNICEF reiterates its urgent call for a sustained cessation of hostilities. Children need to be protected from further harm and schools, hospitals, water systems and other civilian infrastructure urgently safeguarded. Humanitarian access must be ensured and international law must be respected.
“Most importantly, Lebanon’s children must be given the chance not only to survive this crisis, but to recover from it and reclaim the future that conflict has placed at risk,” Corsi concluded.
The Lebanese Health Ministry announced the total death toll from the Israeli military offensive, from 2 March to 17 June, 2026, rose to 3,884 martyrs and 11,856 people injured.
The Health Ministry stated, Thursday, these figures are the documented cumulative toll of victims from 2 March to 17 June, 2026, amidst the ongoing Israeli military operations and airstrikes on different Lebanese regions.
Israeli airstrikes and shelling are targeting towns and villages in southern Lebanon. This is whilst there are direct attacks on civilian vehicles, including the targeting of a car in the southern town of Zifta.
On the humanitarian front, reports issued by UNICEF indicate that the Israeli offensive is causing, on average, the death and injury of 11 children every day.
These developments coincide with intensive diplomatic and regional efforts aimed at reaching understandings to halt the fighting and end the military escalation on the Lebanese front.
Diplomatic circles have circulated information about anticipated meetings and negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, directly or indirectly, in Washington between 23-25 June, to discuss withdrawal and the cessation of military operations.
This escalation coincides with discussions and leaks regarding a non-binding memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, with Tehran asserting that any progress in the negotiation process requires a complete end to the war in Lebanon.
In the international context, diplomatic sources spoke of American pressure on Israel to adhere to the ceasefire, while France called for the immediate implementation of agreements related to de-escalation and respect for Lebanese sovereignty.
On the other hand, Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem affirmed the party’s adherence to its positions and stressing his rejection of the disarmament of the group.
Palestinian journalist Mohammed Al-Helou, who was injured while working in the field in the Gaza Strip, along with the Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation, filed a criminal complaint against a dual Belgian-Israeli citizen, accusing him of serving as a sniper in the Israeli army.
The Belgian newspaper Le Soir reported that Al-Helou, 24, currently residing as a refugee in the Netherlands, and the Hind Rajab Foundation submitted a request last week to a Brussels court to open an investigation into a person identified only by his initials (A.B.), believed to be residing in the Belgian capital, as well as others whose identities have not yet been revealed.
According to the complaint, A.B. served in the Refaim sniper unit of an Israeli army battalion and is suspected of involvement in serious violations of international humanitarian law.
While working as a journalist in Gaza, Al-Helou was shot by a sniper while covering events near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis between November 2023 and February 2024, despite wearing protective gear clearly marked “PRESS” to indicate his press credentials.
Al-Helou survived the attack after the bullet struck his protective vest, while his 14-year-old brother was killed during Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Al-Helou and his lawyer, Ian Vermon, from the Hind Rajab Foundation, submitted the complaint along with photos and videos, as well as medical reports and witness testimonies confirming the facts.
The Hind Rajab Foundation works to document and prosecute Israeli military personnel suspected of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The foundation is named after Hind Rajab, a Palestinian girl who was killed along with six members of her family in an Israeli airstrike that targeted their car southwest of Gaza City on January 29, 2024.
Established in Brussels in February 2024, the foundation focuses on pursuing legal action against Israeli officials and military personnel in national and international courts. Quds Press
This article was written on 28 February, 2024 at the apex of the Israeli genocide in Gaza on countercurrents.org. Not content with their atrocities, Israeli soldiers posted their havoc online for all to see. The videos are revealing for their depravity.
Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, now fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was so embarrassed with the videos shown on the social media posted by his soldiers in Gaza, he issued a communique instructing his men and women euphemistically not to “film revenge videos”.
These videos have shown soldiers in various situations as dehumanizing Palestinians, raiding their homes, rummaging their drawers, sitting on their tables and going through their underwear in front of the camera while laughing about the fact. They have displayed torture and humiliation not befitting a “professional army”, as they like to call themselves.
Halevi’s comments have been across the media, locally in Israel and internationally. Yet they don’t seem to be making much impact, for the videoclips that have already been posted are retweeted while new ones continue to be splashed across the social media.
The Gaza war has come to be a fascination for Israeli soldiers, a tough series of battleground in the 265-kilometer stretch they’ve never experienced first-hand as they do today. Most of their wars on Gaza have been from the air, this time it is on-ground.
Indeed, the videos show a disturbed Israeli mind. Are the soldiers fighting in Gaza or looking at negligees and bras of women who run aways from their homes and/or were killed by Israeli bombers?
The ground battle has been so hard on them as nearly 3000 soldiers needed to be examined by mental health officers since 7 October the Israeli army reveals and this figure is likely to go up as the conflict intensifies. This is while 2000 soldiers in the “combat zone” need psychiatric treatment says Yekhiel Levechhitz of the clinical department of mental illnesses in the Israeli army.
The heel thief
Imagine dangling a pair of heels in front of the camera? This is what an Israeli soldier did as he posted a video of himself with the shoes after he looted a house raided by the Israeli army.
In a state of excitement, he says these pair of heels, shining white, are for his fiancé for their upcoming engagement party.
Israeli soldiers are raiding houses as if they are their own and nobody can stop them.
An Israeli soldier gifts his wife a pair of heels he looted from a displaced Palestinian family in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/ea3VxmLDSC
Six Israeli soldiers play cards on a prayer mat in a building they took in Al Shati Camp east of Gaza.
It seems they are taking time off from their arrests and vandalism. With plastic cups around, they seem to be playing whilst gambling at the same time.
The prayer mat underneath maybe a strong signal of their distaste to the Palestinian owners and their religion.
🔴🔴عاجل و هاااام 🔴🔴
آخر ظهور للعقيد " نفيري " ومجموعته في احد منازل #غزة وهم يلتقطونسيلفي في غرفة نوم مع علاقي داخلي لسيدة فلسطينية.. بعدها تم نسف المنزل بهم ودفنوا تحت الانقاض🥴
الي حاب اعرف.. من منهم حيبعث يوم القيامة لابس العلاقي الاحمر.. العقيد والا الحراسة🥴🥴… pic.twitter.com/gahSuyCicn
Israel soldiers pose for a selfie in a bedroom of a Palestinian family that was forced to leave their home under Israeli gunfire.
Six soldiers with their guns pose whilst one holds a negligee as another points his finger to it. Is this supposed to mean something?
Their secret stays with them. Shortly after, it was reported the wrecked house was bombed by the Palestinian resistance and all of the soldiers were killed and presently lie under the wreckage like the thousands of Gazans that lie underneath the rubble of their bombed houses.
Although the last point might be doubted since according to Defense Ministry statistics, 17 percent of Israelis soldiers who are killed do so through friendly-fire.
‘Depravity’
Israeli soldiers whilst not fighting Izz Al Din Al Qassam and Saraya Al Quds fighters appear to like raiding Palestinian homes.
One blogger described these #Israeli soldiers as “depraved and degenerate”. He said these soldiers “expose their depravity” and make “fun of the injured” whilst dehumanizing the dead and displaced #Palestinians which they killed.
How does a “depraved” soldier hold balloons with a big smile whilst someone in the background lies tied, gagged and blindfolded on the floor?
In another post, the blogger asks: “How rotten must your entire (Israeli) society be for you to pose with such pride near underwear of women you murdered,” and adds “they don’t fear criticism because this sort of sexual intimidation is encouraged in Israel. Makes me feel sick.”
Expose, name & shame these #Israeli soldiers dehumanising #Palestinians : keep a record for when there’s a big legal case against all the crimes of @idf .. every single one of them pic.twitter.com/b91VehTtXG
The Israeli army may say they are playing with the souls of Palestinians in Gaza, but they are wrong.
In this image, five Israeli soldiers talk to a doll in a kufiyah they obviously stole from a house they just raided.
Its graphic: The contour of the soldiers, their facial expression, the surroundings; the image says it all, the soldiers appear to be happily playing with the plastic doll that was placed at the back of their military Jeep amidst an environ of destruction and mayhem.
These depraved degenerate #Israeli soldiers too. Expose their depravity. Making fun of injured, dehumanised & dead #Palestinians & holding lingerie of Palestinian women, either displaced or likely killed by them. @idf are devoid of any humanity pic.twitter.com/yw3um2YWVm
Not satisfied with the raids on people’s houses, Israeli soldiers, and this is coming from the so-called most moral army in the world, as if this not a great joke, a red negligee is displayed full-frontal on an armored vehicle.
One blogger expresses her disdain and western hypocrisy of what they see in front of them.
Why is this Israeli soldier sleeping in a baby’s crib for? This is a selfie; the soldier took of himself while pretending to sleep in the baby’s crib. It makes you ask: Where is the baby now, where is his family, are they still alive, displaced may, have they been killed?
The final image is taken in one of the houses in Khan Younis, the second largest city in the Gaza Strip. This is where the Israeli army have been held up for the last 2-3 months, unable to overcome the resistance despite their mighty airpower.
Khan Younis is below the center of Gaza, and the rest of the outskirts of the city to the east, is putting up stiff resistance to Israeli soldiers who are getting either killed or maimed and injured by the day and as testified to by the Israeli hospitals.
CrossFireArabia
