The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, this week visited shelters housing persons displaced from southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut following the sharp escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah in recent weeks. These site visits, organized in cooperation with UNICEF, UNDP, WFP and others, afforded Ms. Hennis-Plasschaert an opportunity to speak with displaced individuals, including men, women, children and persons with disabilities. All expressed their hope to return home and resume their normal lives. She also visited a Disaster Risk Management Committee in which local officials, security services and humanitarians work together, with United Nations support, to meet soaring humanitarian needs, despite significant resource challenges.

Throughout these engagements, the Special Coordinator voiced concern regarding the multifold impact of the conflict on children, with thousands set to miss out on their education as schools become shelters.

Meanwhile the Special Coordinator continued to meet with a wide array of Lebanese political and security actors, while engaging with regional and international partners, in her efforts to find openings to reinvigorate momentum on a ceasefire and to advocate for progress in the long-stalled presidential election process.