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STORY: UN / LEBANON UNICEF INGRAM INTERVIEW
TRT: 05:22
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 OCTOBER 2024, BEIRUT, LEBANON / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Close up, United Nations flag
23 OCTOBER 2024, BEIRUT, LEBANON
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Tess Ingram, Communications Manager, Middle East and North Africa, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF):
“We saw lots of destruction on the way there in the towns surrounding Marjaayoun, including, as we drove through Nabatiyeh, and this was obviously a few days ago, before the increase in bombardments in
Nabatiyeh. When we were in Marjaayoun the bombardments were incredibly loud, and we saw an airstrike on a hill opposite us, in a in a town not very far away. There was also the sound of shelling, and we were there to serve the people who said that they hear these sorts of sounds all the time, including children.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, United Nations flag
23 OCTOBER 2024, BEIRUT, LEBANON
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Tess Ingram, Communications Manager, Middle East and North Africa, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF):
“In the South, I met families who told me about the fear of living surrounded by airstrikes and shelling, of the difficulty in getting supplies that they need, including clean water to drink, and of the difficulties moving around from village to village to see family or to stay out from harm’s way. So, it's a very difficult situation for people in the south of Lebanon at the moment, especially children who are really affected by this sort of conflict and the toll that it's having on their mental health, but also their access to education and to essential supplies.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
5. Close up, United Nations flag
23 OCTOBER 2024, BEIRUT, LEBANON
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Tess Ingram, Communications Manager, Middle East and North Africa, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF):
“Even from the southern suburbs of Beirut. When I was there, I met many families who were really struggling with surviving because they don't have the basics that they need to get through the day. I met a mother with seven children who didn't have access to water, and this mother, Farah, who had just given birth on the streets to a five-day old baby, and was worried about that baby becoming sick, particularly as the weather gets colder. UNICEF is supporting families who have been displaced both to shelters, but also to the streets, by providing them with water, blankets, mattresses, and also services like health services and mental health services to try and help families in this immediate period of crisis. We've reached more than 480 shelters, supporting about 90,000 people in the last month.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, United Nations flag
23 OCTOBER 2024, BEIRUT, LEBANON
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tess Ingram, Communications Manager, Middle East and North Africa, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF):
“The rate of injuries, particularly among children, has risen rapidly. At hospitals, I met children who had severe shrapnel injuries, shrapnel to the brain, and another boy who had shrapnel in his spinal cord. And these children required serious surgeries. I also spoke to doctors who were performing amputations and other surgeries on children's bones after their exposure to blast wounds. There are also reports of children who've been really badly burnt by these blasts. So, UNICEF, is doing everything that we can at the moment to support children primarily by providing health services for the displaced people at shelters, but also providing medical supplies. Over 167 metric tons have been delivered from UNICEF in the past few weeks to make sure that hospitals and emergency first responders have what they need to help care for children and their families as the crisis escalates.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
9. Close up, United Nations flag
23 OCTOBER 2024, BEIRUT, LEBANON
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Tess Ingram, Communications Manager, Middle East and North Africa, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF):
“The most consistent problem that children raised to me when I met them at shelters or in their communities in the South, was how frightened they are about the sounds, about their ability to be safe at their home or in their community or in their shelter. They don't know what's going to happen next, and that's very scary for a child. Children can live in this period of stress response for a short period of time. But if this continues, and it compounds like we've seen in other conflicts. It can be really dangerous for a child's long term, health, and their development.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
11. Close up, United Nations flag
23 OCTOBER 2024, BEIRUT, LEBANON
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Tess Ingram, Communications Manager, Middle East and North Africa, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF):
“I met an 8-year-old boy called Amir at a hospital in Beirut, and he was preparing for his second surgery, after an explosion near his home resulted in shrapnel and debris that hit him and penetrated his small, fragile body. He was actually pulled from underneath rubble, and he has still shrapnel in his spine. Doctors had been able to remove some of it, but not all of it, and they were preparing to try and get the rest, because it was beginning to affect the feeling and sensation in his feet, and his family were worried that it might impact his ability to walk. And this is just one of many examples of the hundreds of children that we know in Lebanon have been injured in the past few weeks. This is something that should shock the world. No child should be exposed to this sort of danger, and these sorts of injuries.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
13. Close up, United Nations flag
23 OCTOBER 2024, BEIRUT, LEBANON
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Tess Ingram, Communications Manager, Middle East and North Africa, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF):
“The children of Lebanon need peace. They need a ceasefire now. That is the best way for the world to help the children of Lebanon, and for humanitarian agencies like UNICEF, to be able to safely do our job, to reach as many children as possible with the life-saving services and supplies that they need.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
15. Close up, United Nations flag
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) is calling for an immediate de-escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, as cross-border shelling and air raids threaten children's lives and mental health.
In an interview via video teleconference from Beirut, UNICEF Communications Manager for the Middle East and North Africa Tess Ingram said, “when we were in Marjaayoun the bombardments were incredibly loud, and we saw an airstrike on a hill opposite us, in a in a town not very far away. There was also the sound of shelling, and we were there to serve the people who said that they hear these sorts of sounds all the time, including children.”
The protracted cross-border conflict escalated drastically on Sept. 23, reportedly killing nearly 500 people, including at least 35 children — and injuring more than 1,600.
Ingram said, “in the South, I met families who told me about the fear of living surrounded by airstrikes and shelling, of the difficulty in getting supplies that they need, including clean water to drink, and of the difficulties moving around from village to village to see family or to stay out from harm’s way.”
She said, children “are really affected by this sort of conflict and the toll that it's having on their mental health, but also their access to education and to essential supplies.”
As the number of injured rises, UNICEF is dispatching lifesaving medical supplies and commodities to overstretched hospitals facing severe shortages and supply stock-outs in Lebanon.
In the southern suburbs of Beirut, Ingram said she met “many families who were really struggling with surviving because they don't have the basics that they need to get through the day.”
She described meeting a mother named Farah, “who had just given birth on the streets to a five-day old baby, and was worried about that baby becoming sick, particularly as the weather gets colder.”
By Sept. 23, UNICEF had procured and delivered a total of 100 tons of emergency medical supplies to Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health for distribution to public and private hospitals, especially those in conflict-affected areas.
The communications specialist said, “the rate of injuries, particularly among children, has risen rapidly. At hospitals, I met children who had severe shrapnel injuries, shrapnel to the brain, and another boy who had shrapnel in his spinal cord. And these children required serious surgeries. I also spoke to doctors who were performing amputations and other surgeries on children's bones after their exposure to blast wounds. There are also reports of children who've been really badly burnt by these blasts.”
She said, “the most consistent problem that children raised to me when I met them at shelters or in their communities in the South, was how frightened they are about the sounds, about their ability to be safe at their home or in their community or in their shelter. They don't know what's going to happen next, and that's very scary for a child,” adding that this “can be really dangerous for a child's long term, health and their development.”
87 new shelters are accommodating the growing numbers of internally displaced people. UNICEF is preparing to deliver food, water, and essential supplies such as mattresses and hygiene kits to displaced families, especially those in collective shelters.
Ingram said, “I met an 8-year-old boy called Amir at a hospital in Beirut, and he was preparing for his second surgery, after an explosion near his home resulted in shrapnel and debris that hit him and penetrated his small, fragile body. He was actually pulled from underneath rubble, and he has still shrapnel in his spine. Doctors had been able to remove some of it, but not all of it, and they were preparing to try and get the rest, because it was beginning to affect the feeling and sensation in his feet, and his family were worried that it might impact his ability to walk. And this is just one of many examples of the hundreds of children that we know in Lebanon have been injured in the past few weeks.”
She stressed that “this is something that should shock the world. No child should be exposed to this sort of danger, and these sorts of injuries.”
Since the onset of the conflict, UNICEF has deployed extensive resources to support the resilience of displaced families and mitigate the impact of displacement.
To conclude, Ingram said, “the children of Lebanon need peace. They need a ceasefire now. That is the best way for the world to help the children of Lebanon, and for humanitarian agencies like UNICEF, to be able to safely do our job, to reach as many children as possible with the life-saving services and supplies that they need.”
Intense strikes by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) into Lebanon and by Hizbullah into Israel continued over the last 24 hours. The IDF struck various locations in Beirut as well as Bekaa, Jezzine, Mount Lebanon, Nabatiyeh, Sidon, and in the UNIFIL area of operations.
UNICEF has warned that the ongoing bombardment is also impacting water infrastructure, with at least 28 water facilities damaged, affecting supplies for more than 360,000 people, primarily in southern Lebanon.
Across the country, nearly 1,100 shelters for people displaced within Lebanon have been opened and now host more than 191,000 people – approximately one quarter of people displaced inside the country. Over 900 of these shelters – that’s 82 percent – are already full. The highest concentration of collective shelters is in Beirut and Mount Lebanon Governorate.
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