Gaza (Union)
The Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said yesterday that the Gaza Strip has become the most dangerous place in the world for children.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council after her visit to the southern Gaza Strip, “More than 5,300 children were killed in just 46 days, that is, 115 children every day over weeks and weeks.”
She added, “According to these numbers, children constitute 40 percent of the dead in Gaza. This is unprecedented.” In other words, the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world for children,” she said, also pointing to the loss of 1,200 children, some of whom are likely still under the rubble left by the bombing.
Beyond the direct victims of the battles, Russell expressed her concern about the epidemiological dangers, the near absence of clean water, especially for infants, and the effects of malnutrition.
She warned that “the children of Gaza are living in a state of extreme danger due to the catastrophic living conditions. One million children, all children in the Strip, face food insecurity that could soon turn into a catastrophic crisis linked to malnutrition.”
Russell continued: “We see that in the coming months, the most dangerous form of malnutrition for children’s lives may increase by about 30 percent in Gaza.”
She also said: “For the children to survive, for the humanitarian teams to be able to stay and move, humanitarian truces are simply not enough,” while welcoming the announced agreement to release hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a 4-day truce. She added: “UNICEF calls for an urgent humanitarian ceasefire with the aim of putting an immediate end to this massacre.”
For her part, Director of the United Nations Population Fund, Natalia Kanem, expressed her concern about the fate of pregnant women in the Gaza Strip and their newborns.
She said: “Amidst the battles and destruction, there are currently 5,500 pregnant women in Gaza who are expected to give birth within the next month. Every day, about 180 women give birth in horrific conditions, and the future of their infants is uncertain.”
In a related context, Kazem Abu Khalaf, spokesman for UNRWA, told Al-Ittihad that everything that is in the interest of civilians must be supported and its importance must be emphasized to alleviate the suffering of civilians, stressing the effort to bring in more aid during the coming period, noting that the truce It will allow greater freedom of movement throughout the Strip to provide relief to civilians.
An UNRWA spokesman said that 108 of the agency’s workers were killed as a result of the war, indicating that the United Nations organization will work to set the main requirements for their implementation and search for more survivors under the rubble.
He said, “The days of the truce will allow UNRWA and the various relief organizations to inform the world of the details of what is happening in Gaza, especially since during the last period it was not possible to move in different areas within the Strip, and the inability of relief teams to reach and cover these places.”
In turn, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced his welcome of the humanitarian truce agreement, noting that the 4-day truce will ensure the safe delivery of more aid to Gaza.
Ghebreyesus stressed the need to continue efforts to release the remaining prisoners and provide them with medical care.
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