As global headlines focus on soaring oil prices and financial turmoil, there is a risk of overlooking the real human cost of the Middle East conflict – the devastating toll it is taking on children.
The loss of homes, safety, stability and childhoods over the past month is devastating families, with the shockwaves of this conflict extending far beyond the region.
Working with children in almost 110 countries, we are witnessing the wave of fear this crisis has created. Children in scores of countries are scared and anxious, with some asking their parents if this is the start of World War III.
I visited Beirut this week, where this war is devastating children and families yet again, with more than one million people forcibly displaced from their homes. Across Lebanon, families fleeing violence arrive at shelters carrying whatever pieces of normal life they can take with them. Children clutch toys, schoolbags and sometimes their pets, trying to hold onto small comforts as their world is suddenly uprooted.
Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children International, and Ahmad Alhendawi, Regional Director for Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe (MENAEE), visited a collective shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, to witness Save the Children response and support to displaced families. Save the Children
I saw firsthand how schools that were meant for education are becoming shelters for displaced families, and how playgrounds and sports facilities are turning into places for storing and distributing humanitarian aid. No child should have to live through this.
But Lebanon is only one part of a wider tragedy unfolding across the region.
Since 28th February, more than four million people have been displaced across several countries affected by this conflict. Hundreds of children have already lost their lives.
In Iran, the country is mourning the deaths of more than 100 girls killed in a strike on a school in Minab. In Israel, Lebanon and elsewhere, families are grieving children who had no role in this war yet have paid the ultimate price.
The consequences of this conflict will not end when the bombs stop falling. The damage will last for years.
A 17-year-old boy in Lebanon told Save the Children:
All we want is to live in safety, not to live today without knowing whether tomorrow will come for us or not.
For millions of children across the region, fear is constant. Schools are closed, hospitals are struggling to operate, and communities that once provided stability are shattered by displacement and insecurity.
But the cost of this war is not confined to the Middle East.
Missile and drone attacks have disrupted energy and shipping infrastructure across the Gulf, including the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies pass. Shipping routes are being rerouted, and freight costs are rising sharply. The result is increasing prices for food, fuel and transport around the world.
For families already struggling to survive, these rising costs are not an inconvenience. They are a threat to survival.
The world is already facing an unprecedented hunger crisis. Today, more than half of all children globally cannot afford a healthy diet. The United Nations has warned that if the current conflict continues to destabilise global markets, the number of people facing acute hunger could rise to 363 million this year – the highest level on record.
Humanitarian organisations are already feeling the impact.
Disruptions to shipping routes have delayed lifesaving medical supplies destined for some of the world’s most fragile contexts. Save the Children alone has around $600,000 worth of critical medical shipments currently delayed, affecting programmes supporting hundreds of thousands of children in countries such as Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan.
Fuel shortages are starting to impact daily lives, particularly across Southeast and South Asia, where countries including the Philippines and Bangladesh are running dangerously low on fuel. The Philippines was the first country this week to declare a state of “national energy emergency”.
For fragile economies already reeling from aid cuts and climate shocks, the consequences of rises in food prices and supply disruptions could be catastrophic. Several low-income and developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, are heavily reliant on food imports, making them particularly vulnerable to global supply shocks and price volatility.
At every turn, children are impacted, and for children, the cost of war is paid twice. First in the immediate loss of safety, homes and education. And then in the long shadow of destroyed schools, hospitals and water systems that will take generations to rebuild.
It does not have to be this way.
ALL CHILDREN MUST BE PROTECTED. ALL CHILDREN DESERVE PEACE. DONATE NOW TO PROTECT CHILDREN LIVING IN CRISIS.
World leaders must urgently choose a different path. Diplomacy must replace escalation, and the protection of children must come before military objectives.
All parties to the conflict must comply with international humanitarian law. Attacks on schools, hospitals and aid workers must stop, and humanitarian supplies must be allowed to move freely, including through critical routes such as the Strait of Hormuz.
Children cannot continue to pay the price for a war they did not create.
No child should grow up displaced from their home, their classroom turned into a shelter, or their playground into a warehouse for aid. Yet for millions of children across this region, this is now their daily reality.
This war must stop, and children’s futures must be protected.
