GENEVA: Unicef has said more than 200 children have been killed and 1,100 injured in Lebanon in just two months, as US special envoy Amos Hochstein met officials in Beirut on Tuesday to discuss a truce plan with claims that an end to the war is “now within our grasp”.

Unicef spokesperson James Elder at a press briefing in Geneva said, “Despite more than 200 children killed in Lebanon in less than two months, a disconcerting pattern has emerged: their deaths are met with inertia from those able to stop this violence.”

“For the children of Lebanon, it has become a silent normalisation of horror,” he said, while drawing “chilling similarities” bet­ween the conflicts in Lebanon and in Gaza, where a significant portion of nearly 44,000 people killed in are reported to be children.

On the other hand, Israel expanded the focus of its operations to Lebanon from Gaza, where forces stormed Jabal Mukaber area and cordoned off the decades old Al-Shiyah mosque before tearing it down, Al Jazeera reported.

Israeli forces demolish mosque in Jabal Mukaber

Earlier, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US had shared ceasefire proposals with both Lebanon and Israel.

During a visit to Beirut on Tuesday, US special envoy Amos Hochstein said an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war was “now within our grasp” as he met with officials to discuss a truce plan largely endorsed by Lebanon.

Following a meeting with Hezbollah-allied parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation on behalf of the group, Hochstein told reporters he saw “a real opportuni­­ty” to end the fighting. “I’m here in Beirut to facilitate that decision, but it’s ultima­tely the decision of the part­ies… It is now within our grasp,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2024