BEIRUT, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 has reached 773, with 1,933 injuries, the country's Public Health Ministry said Friday.
The ministry noted a rise in child casualties, with 103 killed and 326 injured.
The crisis has affected about 1.3 million people, including up to 1 million displaced within Lebanon and nearly 100,000 who have crossed into Syria, according to Imran Riza, UN's deputy special coordinator and humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon.
Lebanon's Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed said that children account for nearly half of those affected, while women and girls make up more than half of the impacted population.
In response, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced on Friday a 325-million-U.S.-dollar emergency humanitarian appeal for Lebanon at a press conference in Beirut, urging stronger international solidarity with the country.
Since the launch of the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran on Feb. 28, tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have sharply escalated, with Hezbollah firing rocket barrages at northern Israeli communities and Israel striking sites in southern and eastern Lebanon, which it says house Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure.
