BEIRUT — Rising child malnutrition and hunger in Lebanon will get worse unless farming in the country's south is restored, Save the Children warned, saying Israeli attacks have destroyed almost one quarter of Lebanon's agricultural land. The charity's statement, issued in Beirut on November 6, said restricted access to fields and destroyed agricultural and civilian infrastructure are undermining food production and families' ability to feed their children, leaving children with fewer meals and less dietary diversity.

The warning rests on the latest analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global hunger monitor. The IPC said the number of people in Lebanon struggling to meet essential needs amid conflict, a fragile economy and rising living costs had risen 15.4% since April, with 2.15 million people — over a third of the population — lacking any coping measures.

The IPC analysis also warned that food insecurity across Lebanon is expected to worsen between March and July 2027, with the number of people facing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse projected to rise from about 1.05 million to 1.15 million. Refugees and recently displaced Lebanese populations are among the most affected, the analysis said.

Nora Ingdal, Save the Children's country director in Lebanon, said: "In southern Lebanon, the war has left farms, homes and civilian infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and restrictions on movement are keeping families from their land in the middle of the olive harvest. For many households, olives are their main source of income." She added that as winter approaches, rising heating costs will force families into impossible choices between keeping their children warm and keeping them fed.

"Without an immediate actual ceasefire in Lebanon, ensuring an end to hostilities in all its forms, mainly in the south, children will not only be at risk of hunger and malnutrition, but of protection risks and long-term harm that will shape the rest of their lives," Ingdal said. The figures and the destruction claim are Save the Children's and the IPC's; Israel has not commented on this specific report in the sources consulted.

BACKGROUND: Lebanon's south has been fought over since the wider regional war widened in March, and a June 26 US-mediated framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel provided for a gradual Israeli withdrawal in exchange for the Lebanese army deploying and taking over security responsibilities. Attacks and demolitions in the south have continued despite that framework, and Lebanon's Health Ministry said on Thursday that Israeli attacks since March 2 had killed 4,390 people and wounded 12,429 as of November 5 — figures reported by Lebanon's National News Agency.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: the IPC projection runs to July 2027, meaning aid agencies expect the hunger numbers to keep climbing through winter and spring unless farmers regain access to their land and funding rises. For the Punjabi and Indian diaspora, Lebanon is not a major worker destination, but the report is another measure of how the regional war is hollowing out civilian life across the Middle East — and of the food-price pressure the war keeps feeding into global markets.