India, May 1 -- Children as young as four are being forced to go to work in Lebanon amid a massive collapse in humanitarian funding and escalating hostilities on the countrys southern border with Israel that threaten to spiral into a full-scale war, UN child experts said on Tuesday.

In a call for an immediate end to the war in Gaza which sparked intensifying exchanges of fire between armed militants Hezbollah and the Israeli military, the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) warned that airstrikes are hitting deeper and deeper into Lebanon, with 344 people killed to date, including eight youngsters.

Together with those killed and the scores who have been injured, 30,000 children have now been displaced out of some 90,000 since Hezbollah fighters ...