Politics
‘War has aged us’: Lebanon’s kids aren’t alright
Forced by yet another war in Lebanon to flee his home for the second time in just two years, and mourning lost relatives and friends, Hassan Kiki said he feels much older than 16.
“War has aged us… We have lived through what no one else has,” the tall teen from south Lebanon told AFP in Beirut.
“I miss my school, my friends… I lost two cousins and two friends in a massacre in Shehabiyeh,” he added, referring to a deadly Israeli strike in his town that killed at least seven people on March 11.
Kiki is among more than a million people Lebanese authorities have registered as displaced since the country was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2.
On that day, the Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel to avenge the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel, which never stopped bombing Lebanon despite a 2024 truce that sought to end the last war with Hezbollah, responded with widespread strikes, ground operations along the border, and an evacuation warning for swathes of the country.
For many young Lebanese caught in the crossfire, their formative years have been jeopardised by repeated conflicts and crises.
“My childhood is gone,” said Kiki.
“Material losses can be made up for, but people do not come back.”
Since 2019, Lebanese have been battling a financial crisis that has locked them out of their bank deposits, while the Covid pandemic made life even harder for everyone.
Beirut’s port exploded the following year in one of the world’s largest non-nuclear blasts, destroying swathes of the Lebanese capital, and killing more than 220 people.
‘Dreams on hold’
The first time Zahraa Fares experienced war was in 2024, when she was just 14.
“We were still discovering what we like to do, what activities we enjoy, how we like to spend our days, then we were displaced… and could not do anything”, said the now-16-year-old, who escaped the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
Fares, who said she now feels “mentally crushed”, found relief in an acting workshop in Beirut’s Lebanese National Theatre intended to support war-affected youth like herself.
Wassim al-Halabi, a 20-year-old Syrian who fled the war in his country nine years ago and is still living in Lebanon, has found himself stuck in another conflict.
Working in a restaurant since the 2024 war forced him out of university, Halabi said he was “starting from zero to be able to stand on my two feet again, but war started again”.
“Our dreams are now on hold until the war ends.”
Lebanese authorities on Thursday said Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people since March 2.
The toll includes 118 children.
“Cumulative trauma, cumulative adverse experiences and ongoing instability and unpredictability certainly put these children at higher risk… of developing psychiatric disorders and negative mental health outcomes,” Evelyne Baroud, a child and adolescent psychiatrist told AFP.
“Witnessing violence, physical assaults, killings, forced displacement, losing one’s home, loss of a parent, all of these carry a very high risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder.”
Generational trauma
Lebanon has been mired in conflicts and crises for decades, the worst of which was the 15-year civil war that erupted in 1975 and which divided the country into warring sectarian fiefdoms.
For many years since the end of that war, which killed 150,000 people and left 17,000 more missing, bitter political divisions continued to plague Lebanon.
The war also saw an Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon until 2000.
While young Lebanese grew up hearing stories of war from their parents, they never expected to have to live through one themselves.
“My mother used to tell us about how they would be displaced, hear airstrikes, but I was not able to properly imagine it,” Fares said.
“I used to ask myself ‘how could they shelter in a school?’ but now I see it with my own eyes.”
At a gathering in Beirut to express solidarity for victims of the war, 18-year-old Laura al-Hajj wondered: “Why do I have so many concerns at my age?”
“We carried burdens that are much bigger than us, and beyond our age… I now just worry about being alive tomorrow.”
Hajj said she feels like “from generation to generation, we are all living through wars”.
“No child should have to go through what we went through.”
Muslims across the world are celebrating Eid ul Fitr with traditional zeal and fervour, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Families and communities are coming together for prayers, feasts, and charitable giving, reflecting on a month of fasting, spiritual reflection, and devotion. The celebrations are filled with joy, greetings of “Eid Mubarak,” and acts of kindness that highlight the essence of the festival.
Rescuers were searching for the crew and passengers of a Qatari military helicopter that crashed in the Gulf state´s waters after a “technical malfunction”, the government said early Sunday.
“A Qatari helicopter had a technical malfunction during a routine duty, which led to its crash in the regional waters of the State,” Qatar’s defence ministry said in a statement posted to X. “Searching operation for its crew members and passengers is in progress.”
The interior ministry said that several specialised teams have been deployed.
Qatar has not specified where the helicopter was flying or the number of people on board.
While Qatar has been targeted by several strikes since the start of the Middle East war, no connection has been made between this chopper and the conflict triggered by US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
- TSA staff shortages disrupt major airport travel.
- ICE agents not specifically trained for TSA duties.
- Democrat calls Trump’s ICE airport plan reckless.
US President Donald Trump threatened to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to US airports on Monday if congressional Democrats do not immediately agree to fund airport safety.
Transportation Security Administration personnel are set to miss a second full paycheck on March 27 amid a partial government shutdown in its 36th day as lawmakers clash over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency for TSA and ICE.
TSA officers have called in sick as paychecks have dried up, and the shortage of security agents has disrupted travel at major airports. More than 400 TSA workers have quit since the partial shutdown began on February 14, NBC News reported on Saturday, citing DHS.
“I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
In a subsequent post, Trump said the deployment would begin on Monday “if the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country.”
TSA has about 65,000 employees, including 50,000 airport security officers.
ICE, central to Trump admin immigration crackdown
ICE agents are not specifically trained for airport security, which is TSA’s domain. ICE has played a central role in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, drawing criticism from many Democrats, civil liberties advocates and immigration advocacy groups.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, criticised Trump’s proposal as “another reckless, lawless threat to misuse ICE agents.”
“He seems to have no concept of what the limits are on ICE, and I think America would be absolutely appalled to see ICE agents roaming through airports, just as they’ve been breaking down doors at homes,” Blumenthal told reporters in Washington.
Homeland Security historically has shifted resources across agencies during emergency staffing shortages, said Stewart Baker, who was a DHS policy official in President George W. Bush’s administration. Keeping TSA going without paying staff creates “serious trouble” for the agency, Baker said.
Using ICE agents for airport security “may be slower than using trained people, but it would be better than having nobody,” he added.
ICE, along with Customs and Border Protection, has deployed agents over the past few months to multiple areas as part of the crackdown, most recently to Minnesota in an operation that resulted in agents fatally shooting American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Their deaths sparked a backlash and led the Trump administration to adopt a more targeted approach in Minnesota.
Trump this month fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid growing criticism of the administration’s immigration tactics. The US Senate is considering the nomination of Senator Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, as the next DHS secretary.
Trump has said his immigration policies are intended to curb illegal immigration and improve national security.
Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union said TSA had provided lists of airport travellers to ICE, calling the move a break from TSA’s prior practices.
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