"Every war is a war against children" - but it must never be accepted as an inevitability
Children were already paying the highest price in wars worldwide, and the escalating conflict in the Middle East is only deepening the crisis, with hundreds killed, thousands displaced, and millions living in fear, says Save the Children International CEO Inger Ashing.
As the world marks Annual Day on the Rights of the Child this year, bombardment, displacement, and terror are inflicting new wounds on a generation of children across the Middle East and wider region, many of whom already carry the physical and mental scars of years of violence, insecurity, or deprivation.
What our teams are seeing and hearing is devastating.
More than 200 children have been killed in the first week, according to official and media reports. Across the region, children are terrified - unable to sleep as sirens sound or blasts shake the walls around them.
In Iran, children were killed in their classrooms. In Israel, where children have also died, rocket and drone attacks have forced thousands of children back into bomb shelters. In Lebanon, families are fleeing for the second or third time. In Gaza, closures at crossings bring fears of prolonged siege and deprivation, and in the West Bank, checkpoint closures have prevented children from going to school.
This latest escalation compounds harm upon harm.
In every conflict - from Ukraine to the Democratic Republic of Congo - children bear the heaviest burden. Children are seven times more likely to die from blast injuries than adults. When hunger sets in and malnutrition strikes, their developing bodies succumb faster, and preventable childhood illnesses become fatal. The harms do not end when the hostilities do. The wounds of war follow children through their lives.
The current conflict in the Middle East and wider region is unfolding against the backdrop of a fracturing of the laws, norms, and institutions designed to protect civilians and uphold the rights of the most vulnerable. Children are among the intended beneficiaries of that system. They are also its most visible victims when it fails.
Last year saw a record number of grave violations against children in armed conflict documented by the United Nations, with violations including killing, maiming, abduction, sexual violence, recruitment into armed groups, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access to children. These are not abstract statistics, but rather a record of our collective failure.
We have the tools to protect children. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Geneva Conventions, and the Children and Armed Conflict mechanisms are enshrined in international law and exist precisely to prevent what we are now witnessing. Yet many in positions of power are failing to uphold these laws, and the broader international community is failing to ensure compliance.
Leaders have spent the better part of a decade perfecting the art of deep concern - releasing statements that are masterpieces of diplomatic posturing but that fall short of consequence. When the law becomes a set of suggestions rather than a collective responsibility, children pay the price.
Last year, Sila*, 17, from Idlib, Syria, addressed the United Nations Security Council, the body charged with overseeing international peace and security. Sila shared her powerful experience of growing up amidst conflict in Syria for almost her entire childhood:
“I am from a generation that survived physically, but our hearts still live in fear. Help us replace the word ‘displacement’ with ‘return’, the word ‘rubble’ with ‘home’, and the word ‘war’ with ‘life’.”
Today, Sila and more than 100 million children like her across the Middle East are once again living under the terrifying shadow of an expanding war. Her plea should echo in every chamber of power.
Over a century ago, Save the Children’s founder, Eglantyne Jebb, declared that “every war is a war against children.” That truth is as irrefutable today as it was then. But it must not be accepted as an inevitability. It is a choice.
Leaders must prioritise diplomacy over escalation, uphold international law, and ensure that all States renew their commitment to global stability and the mechanisms designed to protect children in armed conflict before erosion becomes irreversible and children around the world pay the highest price.
We must reject a global system that has decided children’s lives are acceptable geopolitical collateral. The stakes could not be higher - and the time for posture alone has long passed.”