Hezbollah fighters carrying the coffins of civilians killed in an air strike, in Nabatieh, south Lebanon, Feb.17, 2024. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
The Ministry of Education has called for a "sit-in of solidarity" on Monday between 12 and 1 p.m. in all Lebanese schools, in memory of the Lebanese students killed by Israeli strikes in the south of the country, and in support of the displaced.
In a statement, the press office of outgoing Education Minister Abbas Halabi denounced "the continuous attacks, over the past four and a half months, targeting civilian infrastructure and schools in southern villages, displacing pupils and killing them in aerial bombardments," including "the massacre of children, young people and civilians in Nabatieh and Souaneh."
On Wednesday afternoon, three civilians, including two children aged thirteen and two, were killed in a strike on a house in Souaneh, in the Bint Jbeil district.
In the evening, a bombardment in Nabatieh killed seven people, including a child. Another three-year-old boy was rescued alive from the rubble.
In the face of Israel's "savage aggression," the Ministry of Education "calls on the principals of schools, secondary schools, institutes and technical schools, in both the private and public sectors, in all the districts of Lebanon, to organize a solidarity sit-in, between 12 and 1 p.m., on Feb. 19, in their classrooms, in support of the displaced pupils and their parents, and as a tribute to the martyrs, victims of the Israeli strikes."
School principals are invited to devote part of this hour to "explaining the importance of solidarity with students from border villages, and to send messages to the international community and UN organizations to break their silence and put pressure on Israel to stop committing massacres of innocent civilians," according to the statement.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 86,874 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon since the start of daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israel along the southern border.
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour.