BEIRUT (AP) — More than 400,000 children in Lebanon have been displaced in the past three weeks, a top official with the U.N. children’s agency said Monday, warning of a “lost generation” in the small country grappling with multiple crises and now in the middle of war.
Israel has escalated its campaign against the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group, including launching a ground invasion, after a year of exchanges of fire during its war with Hamas in Gaza.
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A displaced man sets up a tent as temporary shelter after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in front of the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Families fleeing Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in Martyrs' square, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Children play next to their family's tent after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People walk past tents set up as temporary shelters by displaced families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south and Dahiyeh, on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)WLD
Children play as their father, left, set up a tent as temporary shelter after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A displaced family fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sits next to their tent on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, most of them fleeing to Beirut and elsewhere in the north over the past three weeks since the escalation.
Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's deputy executive director for humanitarian actions, has visited schools that have been turned into shelters to host displaced families.
“What struck me is that this war is three weeks old and so many children have been affected,” Chaiban told The Associated Press in Beirut.
“As we sit here today, 1.2 million children are deprived of education. Their public schools have either been rendered inaccessible, have been damaged by the war or are being used as shelters. The last thing this country needs, in addition to everything else it has gone through, is the risk of a lost generation.”
While some Lebanese private schools are still operating, the public school system has been badly affected by the war, along with the country's most vulnerable people such as Palestinian and Syrian refugees.
″What I’m worried about is that we have hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian children that are at risk of losing their learning," Chaiban said.
More than 2,300 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes, nearly 75% of them over the last month, according to the Health Ministry. In the last three weeks, more than 100 children were killed and over 800 were wounded, Chaiban said.
He said displaced children are crammed into overcrowded shelters where three or four families can live in a classroom separated by a plastic sheet, and where 1,000 people can share 12 toilets. Not all of them work.
Many displaced families found have set up tents along roads or on public beaches.
Most displaced children have experienced so much violence, including the sounds of shelling or gunshots, that they cower at any loud noise, Chaiban said.
Then there is “evacuation orders upon evacuation orders. We’re at the beginning, and already there’s been a profound impact," he said.
The escalation has also put over 100 primary health care facilities out of service, while 12 hospitals are either no longer working or partially functional.
Water infrastructure has also come under attack. In the last three weeks, 26 water stations providing water to almost 350,000 people have been damaged, Chaiban said. UNICEF is working with local authorities to repair them.
He called for civilian infrastructure to be protected. And he appealed for a cease-fire in Lebanon and in Gaza, saying there needs to be political will and a realization that the conflict cannot be resolved through military means.
“What we must do is make sure that this stops, that this madness stops, that there’s a cease-fire before we get to the kind of destruction and pain and suffering and death that we’ve seen in Gaza,” Chaiban said.
With so many needs, he said, the emergency response appeal for $108 million in Lebanon has only been 8% funded three weeks into the escalation.
A displaced man sets up a tent as temporary shelter after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in front of the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Families fleeing Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in Martyrs' square, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Children play next to their family's tent after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People walk past tents set up as temporary shelters by displaced families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south and Dahiyeh, on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)WLD
Children play as their father, left, set up a tent as temporary shelter after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A displaced family fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sits next to their tent on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
President-elect Donald Trump is starting to fill key posts in his second administration, putting an emphasis so far on aides and allies who were his strongest backers during the 2024 campaign.
Here's a look at whom he has selected so far.
Trump says William McGinley, a lawyer who has served in Trump's White House and in a key political role this year, will be his White House counsel.
McGinley was White House Cabinet secretary during Trump's first administration, and was outside legal counsel for the Republican National Committee's election integrity effort during the 2024 campaign.
In a statement, Trump called McGinley “a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda, while fighting for election integrity and against the weaponization of law enforcement.”
Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next.
Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”
Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East.
The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination.
Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud."
Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee.
Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel, the president-elect announced Tuesday.
Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah.
“He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.”
Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland.
Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Trump asked Waltz, a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday.
The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!”
Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs.
He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population.
Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager.
Wiles has a background in Florida politics. She helped Ron DeSantis win his first race for Florida governor. Six years later, she was key to Trump's defeat of him in the 2024 Republican primary.
Wiles’ hire was Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and one that could be a defining test of his incoming administration considering her close relationship with the president-elect. Wiles is said to have earned Trump's trust in part by guiding what was the most disciplined of Trump's three presidential campaigns.
Wiles was able to help keep Trump on track as few others have, not by criticizing his impulses, but by winning his respect by demonstrating his success after taking her advice.
Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history.
Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign.
Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”
Democrats have criticized Homan for defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border.
Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment.
Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership.
Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile.
If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine that began in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah.
Miller, an immigration hardliner, was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration.
Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families.
Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security.
Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.”
“We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added.
During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referred to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign that his administration would “drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration.
In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.”
Farnoush Amiri, Lolita C. Baldor, Jill Colvin, Matthew Daly, Edith M. Lederer, Lisa Mascaro, Zeke Miller and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., speaks outside the hush money criminal case of former president Donald Trump in New York, May 16, 2024. President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary is still up in the air, but it’s a sure bet he will look to pick a loyalist following his tumultuous first term. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
FILE - Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., speaks at a rally in Concord, N.H., Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., waves to supporters at CPAC in Oxon Hill, Md., Feb. 23, 2024. President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Rep. Elise Stefanik to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Thomas Homan speaks during an interview in East Point, Ga., April 26, 2018. President-elect Donald Trump says that Tom Homan, his former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, will serve as “border czar” in his incoming administration. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
Susie Wiles watches as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Lititz, Pa., Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)