Children are bearing the brunt of the armed conflict in the Middle East, a senior United Nations official said today as she concluded a two-week mission to Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel.

At home in a backstreet of Hayy al-Sillom, one of Beirut's sprawling southern suburbs' densely populated and poverty-ridden quarters, Bassem lies on the floor with his multiply fractured leg stretched out in front of him. Though it is broad daylight outside, the windows are shut and the lights are dim in his tiny living room.

Apr. 09, 2007- The air is heavy, almost unbearably so, with cigarette smoke and the stench of urine from a makeshift container he uses, as he cannot get up to go to the bathroom. Covering his body with an old blanket, he surrounds himself only with smokes, piled up ashtrays and the medicines he takes to relieve his pain. His frame reveals he was once an able man, one who could happily take care of providing for his family of five. But the profound sadness in his eyes shows that, today, Bassem is a broken man.

Wearing thick wool gloves on his hands and shivering with cold, six-year-old Anthony Touma strives to hold his pen still in his hands as he carefully forms his Arabic letters.

Dec. 18, 2006- 'I'm cold,' little Anthony shyly whispers, 'but I can't write with my gloves on.'Anthony is one of the 130 pupils who attend Saint Laba school in Hasroun, one of the seven most poorly heated schools in Becharré district in North Lebanon. Poverty in the area combined with the cold winter temperatures of the mountains, means the school has barely enough money to operate, let alone buy enough heating fuel to warm the school for students.

Nearly half a million people have less access to humanitarian assistance as a result of increasing military activity, banditry and direct violence against aid workers in early December. The insecurity led to 250 humanitarian staff - from key locations across Darfur serving some 480,000 people - being temporarily evacuated. Aid workers are facing unprecedented difficulties at a time when humanitarian needs are rising fast, said a group of leading international aid agencies working in the conflict-stricken region.

Darfur, Dec. 18, 2006- The agencies - Concern Worldwide, Goal, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam International and World Vision - demanded: All parties must urgently agree - and maintain - a ceasefire with immediate effect. They must ensure that aid workers are able to reach people in need.