Issued on: 24/04/2026 - 15:10

In an interview with FRANCE 24, UNICEF global spokesperson James Elder discussed the situation in Lebanon, where "critical infrastructure that girls and boys rely on" have been targeted, giving Lebanese people "a sense that there really is nowhere safe". He also declared that humanitarian groups like UNICEF are facing an "existential funding crisis", regretting that "the world bailed out the banks" but "no one is bailing out the children".

Elder addressed the situation in south Lebanon, as well as the areas targeted by bombings in Beirut. "Life here has just been turned upside down for people," he said. "There's been so much death, so much destruction", particularly of "critical infrastructure that girls and boys rely on". Referring to the April 8 Israeli air strikes that killed dozens of children, he said: "Talking to many, many Lebanese, it just gave them a sense that there really is nowhere safe."

While the Israeli government says it is targeting Hezbollah militants and infrastructure, Elder confirmed that he witnessed civilians, including children, being targeted on the ground. He also shared the story of a father from south Lebanon he talked to in a shelter, who was showing him the "video of his home being bulldozed by the Israeli forces at the same time while his crops were destroyed. So he's got nothing to go back to."

Trauma 'doesn't stop when the bombs stop'

After several years of hardship, where Lebanon has been essentially a battlefield on and off, Elder pointed out "the toll that takes on education, on trauma", something that "doesn't stop when the bombs stop". He also emphasised the fact that "people are so ready to step up, but as long as the impunity continues for the sheer level of the attacks and the indiscriminate nature of the attacks, they're always somehow behind".

Asked about the situation in Gaza, Elder explained that things have improved as before the ceasefire "there was engineered starvation" and "tens of thousands of children killed [in the bombings], tens of thousands of girls and boys". But he also declared that "unfortunately the ceasefire hasn't stopped the killing of children, but it has largely taken the world's attention away from what's happening to civilians there".

Finally, Elder stated that the funding cuts faced by UNICEF and other humanitarian organisations constitute an "existential funding crisis for children". During the last financial crisis, "the world bailed out the banks", he reminded us. "No one is bailing out the children."

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