More than 13,000 children dead in Gaza, others severely malnourished: UNICEF
The UN agency says the surviving children ‘don’t even have the energy to cry’ as the besieged area has been bombarded for months.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says Israel has killed more than 13,000 children in Gaza since October 7, while others are severely malnourished and “don’t even have the energy to cry”.
“Thousands more are injured or we can’t even determine where they are. They may be trapped under the rubble … We have not seen such a high rate of child deaths in almost any other conflict in the world,” UNICEF’s Executive Director Kathryn Russell told the CBS News Network on Sunday.
“I’ve been in the wards of babies who are suffering from severe anemia, the whole ward is absolutely silent. Because the babies, the babies … don’t even have the strength to cry.
Russell said there were “enormous bureaucratic challenges” in moving aid and aid trucks into Gaza as more than two million Palestinians face starvation since Israel’s “genocidal” war began.
Additionally, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), one in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza is now severely malnourished. The agency also warned that famine is looming in the besieged enclave, which has been under constant Israeli bombardment for more than five months.
Israel has continued to face international criticism over the war’s death toll, the food crisis in Gaza and allegations of halting aid deliveries to the enclave.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his threat of a ground attack on the Egyptian border town of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge.
“No amount of international pressure will stop us from achieving all of our war goals: eliminating Hamas, freeing all our hostages, and Ensuring that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel.
He said that to do this we will also work in Rafah.
Since October 7, Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 31,645 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, and displaced nearly two million residents, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The Israeli action also led to charges of genocide, which are being investigated by the United Nations International Court of Justice.
Israel has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide and insisted it was acting in self-defense following an Oct 7 attack by Hamas that it said killed more than 1,130 people. Killed and took more than 200 hostages.
