Around 420 children killed or injured in Gaza daily
Al Jazeera :
On average, around 420 children are killed or injured every day in Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has told Al Jazeera.
“An average of 420 Palestinian children have been killed or injured every day in the Gaza Strip since October 7,” the channel reported.
The channel quoted a UNICEF spokesperson as saying that “the numbers are appalling.”
“Reportedly more than 3,450 children killed; staggeringly this rises significantly every day,” he said.
“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on Tuesday that women and children constitute about 70% of those killed in the Gaza Strip since the escalation and this cannot be considered “collateral damage.”
The Gaza Strip is now a graveyard for thousands of children, the United Nations has said, as it warned of the prospect of more dying of dehydration amid Israel’s war on the besieged enclave.
The Israeli army has widened its air and ground attacks on Gaza – including houses and hospitals – which has been under relentless air raids since the surprise offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7 that killed 1,400 people in Israel, according to Israeli officials.
More than 8,500 Palestinians, mostly children and women, have been killed, Gaza’s health ministry said.
“Our gravest fears about the reported numbers of children killed becoming dozens, then hundreds, and ultimately thousands were realised in just a fortnight,” James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said in a statement on Tuesday.
Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF, also said that at least 6,300 children have been injured due to the Israeli attacks.
“These numbers should shock and shake us to the core,” Russell said.
The body called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, with all access crossings into the Gaza Strip opened for the safe, sustained and unimpeded access of humanitarian aid, including water, food, medical supplies, and fuel.
