WASHINGTON
UNICEF executive director on Friday warned that over 1.1 million children are threatened by intensifying conflict, malnutrition and disease in the Gaza Strip.
“Children in Gaza are caught in a nightmare that worsens with every passing day,” Catherine Russell said in a statement.
Children and families in Gaza continue to be killed and injured in the fighting, and their lives are increasingly at risk from preventable diseases and lack of food and water, she said, adding all children and civilians must be protected from violence, and have access to basic services and supplies.
Cases of diarrhea in children up 50% in just one week, with 90% children under two subject to “severe food poverty.”
UNICEF is calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire to help save civilian lives and alleviate suffering, Russell said, adding: “UNICEF works to provide the life-saving aid the children of Gaza so desperately need. But we urgently need better and safer access to save children’s lives.”
“The futures of thousands more children in Gaza hang in the balance. The world cannot stand by and watch. The violence and the suffering of children must stop,” she said.
Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7.
At least 22,600 Palestinians have since been killed and 57,910 others injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
