While Canadians have been preoccupied with tariffs and Donald Trump, the conflicts in the Middle East continue, bloody and persistent.
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conflicts → preoccupy → East
Veteran Canadian journalist Sally Armstrong recently ventured, with workers from the Save the Children charity, to an especially overlooked site of the bloodshed, Lebanon, to take measure of the death and destruction’s impact on children there.
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Armstrong → venture → children
Its owner Razan, 7, who has tiny whiskers painted on the edges of her face and a catlike smudge on the tip of her nose, explains she had to leave little Anasa behind when the rockets crashed into her village on March 2 — the day the current war between the U.S., Iran, Israel, Lebanon and a dozen other countries in the Middle East began.
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war → have → East
“I need to go back to my village to find her even though I’m sure she will hide very well.”
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she → need → her
And then giggling as kids do, she adds, “She sometimes even hides from me.
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she → giggle → me
Razan is one of hundreds of thousands of kids who have been caught in conflicts they didn’t start.
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they → catch → conflicts
Throughout the Middle East and in Ukraine and Sudan, these children are paying the consequences of a small group of leaders who seek power and land and are willing to disregard international law to get it.
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who → pay → it
A girls’ school was destroyed in Minab, Iran, killing more than 170 children and staff, by Human Rights Watch estimate, when a U.S. rocket exploded in the building on Feb. 28, 2026.
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rocket → destroy → Feb.
Russian missiles hit the largest children’s hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 8, 2024.
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missiles → hit → July
A cabinet minister in Israel, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said, “All of Lebanon must burn.”
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All → say → Lebanon
Indeed, Israel has fired internationally prohibited white phosphorus into populated areas of southern Lebanon, Human Rights Watch reports — though Israel denies that its use of the substance violates the prohibitions.
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use → fire → prohibitions
And Iran has launched banned cluster munitions at Israeli cities.
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Iran → launch → cities
(Iran has not agreed to the ban.)
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Iran → agree → ban
The Fourth Geneva Convention signed in 1949, and the Rights of the Child Convention, signed in 1989, proclaim the lives of children are to be protected during a conflict and spared the fury of war.
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lives → sign → war
Says Danny Glenwright, CEO of Save the Children Canada, “We used to call it out and prosecute those who broke the rules of war.
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who → say → war
Now governments brag about it.
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governments → brag → it
What’s worse, it has become the norm.
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it → ’ → ?
Those who suffer are the very ones the leaders are supposed to protect — the children.”
Save the Children has worked in Lebanon since 1953.
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Children → suffer → 1953
In collaboration with partners and local authorities, the charity distributes essential items in hard-to-reach areas in the south, provides psychosocial support for children, educates locals about the risks of unexploded ordnance, and more.
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charity → distribute → ordnance
It doesn’t matter whether the child is Lebanese, Ukrainian, Sudanese, Iranian or Israeli, they are blameless pawns in wars they didn’t start.
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they → matter → wars
Says Philippe Bolopion, executive director of Human Rights Watch, “War crimes are no longer shameful.
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crimes → say → Watch
That should terrify you.”
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That → terrify → you
We are living with the largest number of state-based conflicts since the Second World War.
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We → live → War
The violations against children in zones of conflict have surged by 373 per cent since 2010, Save the Children reported last November.
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Children → surge → 2010
Magne Raundalen, a Norwegian child psychologist, has said they grow up to have extraordinary common traits: higher than normal rates of marriage breakdown, emotional instability and alcoholism.
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they → say → breakdown
Two-thirds of the children in conflict zones today have symptoms of psychiatric disorders.
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thirds → have → disorders
New research says the trauma becomes genetic and is passed on to their own children.
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trauma → say → children
I went with Glenwright into south Lebanon to witness the carnage in the lives of children.
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I → go → children
The sound of drones buzzing by, sometimes at window level, is a constant reminder to the children that no one is safe.
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one → buzz → children
The flags on the roadside tell a story too — yellow for Hezbollah and green for Lebanon and a dozen others representing the 18 sects in this place.
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flags → tell → place
Lebanon is hosting more refugees per capita than any place in the world: according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Save the Children and other groups, it hosts almost 900,000 Syrians, 220,000 Palestinians and 13,715 refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka who cannot return home to their own country.
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who → host → country
On March 2, half the country was told by Israel to evacuate.
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country → tell → Israel
After June 22 many returned to their villages, but more than 360,000 are still displaced.
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360,000 → return → villages
The death rate tells the story: 34 Lebanese soldiers, 20 Israeli soldiers, an undetermined number of Hezbollah fighters — likely about 1,000 are dead.
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1,000 → tell → fighters
And so are 261 children, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
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children → accord → Health
Save the Children’s Lebanon country director, Nora Ingdal, says, “Conflict and displacement lead to more consequences for children: child labour and child marriage increase, so does sexual assault including the raping of girls.
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assault → say → girls
We need to provide a safety net and promote self-reliance to empower them.”
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We → need → them
Indeed, at Naba’a Center in Saida, more than 300 children take part in a collection of activities designed to boost self-esteem and foster self-control.
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children → take → control
One of them is called The Green Generation.
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One → call → them
The kids are given seeds — green pepper, tomato, cantaloupe, eggplant — and shown how to plant them, water them, care for them and ultimately harvest them.
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kids → give → them
…and 74 more, not listed.
The Aporia
