The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, declared this Monday that The killing of children in the Gaza Strip since the war between Israel and Hamas began is “unprecedented” in no conflict since he assumed the General Secretary of the organization.
Guterres was thus responding to a question from the press about whether the weekend attacks on two schools of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) constitute war crimes.
The Portuguese said that it is not his responsibility to make this type of assessment, But if we look only at the number of minors killed during hostilities, children in Gaza die at a higher rate than in any other conflict.
Guterres pointed to the reports made by the UN on minors killed in conflicts over the course of a year, which he has had to present on several occasions, and said that, so far, the highest number corresponds to Afghanistan, where in 2018 more than 900 children.
“Without entering into discussions about the accuracy of the figures published by the ‘de facto’ authorities in Gaza, what is clear is that in a few weeks we have had thousands of children” die, said the secretary general.
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According to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, The deaths from Israeli bombings in the enclave have exceeded 13,300 in 45 days of war, among them at least 5,600 children and 3,550 women, and the total number of injured rises to more than 31,000.
There are also more than 6,500 people missing, believed to be under rubble or their bodies lying in the street or roads, so the death toll could be higher.
According to Health, the fuel shortage due to the almost total Israeli siege and attacks have left 25 hospitals and 52 health centers non-functional, while the general humanitarian crisis deepens throughout the Palestinian Strip.
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What is clear is that in a few weeks we have had thousands of children die
Likewise, the continued lack of food or drinking water leads to “a worsening and deterioration of the humanitarian situation in an unprecedented manner,” reiterated Health, which warns of the growing shortage “of basic supplies” in stores, markets and bakeries.
Furthermore, the UN reported this Monday that The number of internally displaced people in the Strip continues to increase and exceeded 1.7 million, which is equivalent to three quarters of the total population of the Palestinian enclave (2.2 million).
These displacements also represent a progressive growth in the number of people staying in facilities of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), which according to the report are now approaching 900,000, mostly in overcrowded conditions.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which prepares daily reports, stressed that this overcrowding has contributed to the spread of acute respiratory diseases (at least 77,000 according to the World Health Organization) and diarrhea (44,000).
This Monday, the new day of fighting between Israel and Hamas was marked by the evacuation to Egypt of a group of premature babies who were in Al Shifa hospital, whose incubators had stopped working days ago due to lack of electricity.
The evacuation was carried out by the Palestinian Red Crescent in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
After crossing the Rafah border crossing and being admitted to the Egyptian Al Arish hospital, sources from the medical center informed Efe that “most or even all” of the babies were in critical condition, and 12 of them had to be transferred to Cairo to receive specialized care.
(Continue reading: Relatives of those kidnapped and disappeared by Hamas march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem)
The Ministry accused Israel this Monday of killing at least 12 people in a “direct attack” against the Indonesian hospital in the north of the Strip. In the context of this Monday’s clashes, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also reported that its clinic in Gaza City was shot at amid “intense fighting” around the facilities.
On the Israeli side, Relatives of some of those kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 called for their immediate release and that of the rest of those captured at a press conference at the Israeli embassy in London.
While the president of the United States, Joe Biden, said this Monday that he believes that an agreement is close to release those held in exchange for Israel pausing its military operations, which today are concentrated in Gaza City, the main city. of the enclave.
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL
*With EFE
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