UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 (APP):A little over one year since a ceasefire agreement was announced between Hamas fighters and Israel, more than 340 children have been reported killed and hundreds more injured, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said.
For families “mourning the loss of their children, those terrible statistics do not equate with a ceasefire”, stressed UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires.
He added that in the last two weeks in Gaza alone, five boys and two girls have been reported killed and at least 33 children seriously injured in airstrikes, drone strikes and gunfire across the Strip. Another two boys died of injuries sustained previously, Mr. Pires told journalists in Geneva.
The consequences of the Hamas-Israel war are everywhere for children: “where they sleep, what they eat, whether they can learn”, he continued, citing the case of 16-year-old Norhan whose mother was shot while eight months pregnant. “She delivered her baby and then died the following day,”
Pires explained.
“Norhan’s father is living with a disability, so she now cares for her one-year-old sister Narjis and takes full responsibility. Her days are spent tidying the home, cooking, and playing with Narjis. Three of her other siblings attend a UNICEF-supported learning centre and Norhan helps them with their studies after class, which as she says means, ‘They might just have a future.’”
Asked about reports that private traders in Gaza had halted cooperation with the Israeli authorities on allowing commercial trucks carrying food to enter the occupied enclave, the UNICEF spokesperson stressed that the uninterrupted flow of “humanitarian and commercial goods” remained essential, “so children can continue their recovery”.
He recalled being in Gaza City last year before the ceasefire began, when supplies “were not getting in” and famine was declared by UN-backed food insecurity experts.
“We can’t go back to a situation where children and families are not getting all the supplies, goods and services that they require,” he insisted, “where children are not receiving what they need to survive and to continue to have hope for their future”.
The UNICEF alert comes as temperatures drop and displaced families in Gaza fill empty flour bags with sand to keep rainwater out of their tents. Aid agencies continue to repeat warnings that the situation in Gaza remains dire, after three years of war, sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel.
The ongoing sanitation crisis is a particular concern in the war-torn enclave, where Israeli bombardment has severely damaged the drainage network.
“There are vast pools of wastewater, such as the Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin that is half-full,” Mr. Pires warned. “With the winter rains fast approaching, we’re running out of time to pump this out. Just as we warned a year ago, contaminated water could overflow and inundate downstream residential areas with potentially life-threatening impacts for children and their families. Children have drowned in sewage-contaminated water before.
According to UNICEF, 800,000 children remain displaced in Gaza “and most live in tents or dangerous bombed-out buildings”. An estimated 60,000 children have seen either one or both parents killed during the war, or since the ceasefire, while nearly every child needs some form of mental health support to recover.
As part of UN assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, UNICEF has helped more than 560,000 children return to learning since the ceasefire, including at over 200 UNICEF-supported learning centres.
The agency has also provided digital cash assistance – “a lifeline”, Pires stressed – to more than 380,000 people, along with safe water to 1.2 million people.
Source: APP (Associated Press of Pakistan)
