Lebanon’s children face physical, psychological trauma amid Israel’s war

Beirut, Lebanon – Four-year-old Malaika was in her home in southern Lebanon’s Mayfadoun when Israel’s bombs began to hit on March 2.

Malaika’s mother made an immediate attempt to flee, knowing that more attacks were likely. She grabbed Malaika and her younger sister Sara, putting the latter in the back seat of her car, and Malaika in the front passenger seat.

The mother sat in the driver’s seat. Then a strike hit near the car.

Malaika woke up in a hospital hours later, with burns on her forehead and damage to her left eye that hospital staff say will require surgery. Sara was also wounded, but not as badly as Malaika.

However, their mother – who the family did not wish to name for privacy reasons – was killed in the strike. In her last act while alive, she had used her body to protect Malaika.

Israel intensified its war on Lebanon on March 2, launching attacks that came after Hezbollah had responded just hours earlier to the February 28 killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ending more than a year of restraint despite daily Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon.

Israel has since killed at least 3,613 people in Lebanon, including at least 245 children, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

“Children continue to bear a disproportionate burden of the conflict,” Elissar Gemayel, response director for World Vision Lebanon, told Al Jazeera. “Children are experiencing repeated displacement, disruption to education, psychological distress, and growing uncertainty about their future.”