The Gaza Strip has become a graveyard for thousands of children, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as it feared the prospect of more dying of dehydration
\nGAZA
\nIsrael has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas fighters stormed across the border on October 7. The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said the strikes have killed more than 8,500 people, mainly civilians.
\nThe UN children\u2019s agency Unicef said there was a risk that the number of child deaths directly from bombardment could become eclipsed.
\n\u201cOur gravest fears about the reported numbers of children killed becoming dozens, then hundreds, and ultimately thousands were realised in just a fortnight,\u201d Unicef spokesman James Elder said in a statement.
\n\u201cThe numbers are appalling; reportedly more than 3,450 children killed; staggeringly this rises significantly every day.\u201d
\n\u201cGaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It\u2019s a living hell for everyone else.\u201d He said the more than one million children living in the Gaza Strip were also suffering from a lack of clean water.
\n\u201cGaza\u2019s water production capacity is a mere five per cent of its usual daily output. Child deaths \u2014 particularly infants \u2014 to dehydration are a growing threat,\u201d he said.
\nUnicef is calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, with all access crossings into Gaza opened for safe, sustained and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid, including water, food, medical supplies, and fuel.
\n\u201cAnd if there is no ceasefire, no water, no medicine, and no release of abducted children? Then we hurtle towards even greater horrors afflicting innocent children,\u201d said Elder. \u201cThere are certainly children who are dying who have been impacted by the bombardment but should have had their lives saved,\u201d Elder told reporters in Geneva, via video link.
\nHe said that without greater humanitarian access into the Gaza Strip, \u201cthen the deaths from the attacks, they could absolutely be the tip of the iceberg\u201d.
\nElder said that according to figures from health faculties in the Gaza Strip, some 940 children were missing.
\nUN humanitarian agency spokesman Jens Laerke added: \u201cIt\u2019s almost unbearable to think about children buried under rubble, but [with] very little opportunity or possibility for getting them out.\u201d
\nThe World Health Organisation (WHO) said people in Gaza were dying not just from direct bombardment.
\n\u2018\u2018We have 130 premature infants that are dependent on incubators, of which 61pc approximately are in the north,\u201d said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s an imminent public health catastrophe that looms with the mass displacement, the overcrowding, and the damage to water and sanitation infrastructure. \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Gaza Strip has become a graveyard for thousands of children, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as it feared the prospect of more dying of dehydration GAZA Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza since Hamas fighters stormed across the border on October 7. The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said the strikes have killed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-365319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n