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Gaza: “With more than 3,450 children killed, Gaza has become a graveyard for children and a living hell for everyone else,” says UNICEF

With the Israeli military advancing deeper into the Gaza Strip and the continuation of "unprecedented" hostilities with a devastating impact on children, UN humanitarians reiterated on Tuesday their calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for unimpeded and secure access of urgently needed aid deliveries in the enclave.

“Reportedly now more than 3,450 children have been killed. Staggeringly, this number rises significantly every single day”, said James Elder, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) when briefing reporters on Tuesday at the UN in Geneva. “Gaza has become a graveyard for children. It's a living hell for everyone else.”

UNICEF estimates that about 940 children are currently missing in Gaza. For Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) “it’s unbearable to think that there is very little possibility for getting them out under the rubble of collapsed buildings.”

According to UNICEF, on average 420 children in Gaza have been reportedly killed or injured every day. “Obviously, if we had a ceasefire for some 72 hours that would mean a thousand children don't have to bear the brunt of mortars or shelling. And that to us, to UNICEF, is all a ceasefire means. It simply means we would keep innocent children safe.”

UNICEF stressed that the threats to children "go beyond bombs and mortars". Long-term trauma may plague survivors "for decades", the UN agency said, while for now, water scarcity poses a massive problem, especially to smaller children.

“Gaza's water production now, its capacity is at five per cent of its daily output,” said the UNICEF spokesperson. “So, child deaths due to dehydration and particularly infant deaths due to dehydration are a growing threat.”

OCHA stressed that the aid that is currently entering into Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt is just a “drop”. The total number of trucks allowed from 21 to 30 October was 143 compared to close to 500 trucks on each working day, including some 50 trucks of fuel, before the escalation.

Emphasizing the importance of getting fuel into the Gaza Strip, Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the UN health agency (WHO) said that “fuel is not just a luxury commodity for fancy cars to drive around. It's vital for the water supply. It's vital for the ambulances. It's vital for the hospitals to operate and many other instances to make the life in Gaza a little bit lighter in that ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.”

Mr. Lindmeier added that “we have 130 premature infants that are dependent on incubators of which 61 per cent approximately are in the north. These require again water and electricity to keep them alive. We have 50,000 pregnant women with an average of 180 plus births a day. We have 350,000 people with non-communicable diseases. That's diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, other thousands of patients in need of kidney dialysis.”

WHO said on Tuesday that is has documented 200 attacks on health care in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, of which 82 were in the Gaza Strip, since the beginning of the hostilities. Mr. Lindmeier said that 491 people were killed in these attacks including 16 health care workers who died on duty. A third of Gaza's 35 hospitals are not functioning.

UN human rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson Liz Throssell reiterated that hospitals are protected buildings under international humanitarian law.

“Regardless of the actions of one side, for example, using hospitals for military purposes, the other side most comply with international humanitarian rules on the conduct of hostilities and that does extend special protection to medical units which must be protected and respected at all times.”

Ms. Throssell added that “where medical units lose their special protection as a result of being used outside their humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemy, and where a warning for the harmful use to cease has gone unheeded, still any attack must comply with the principles of precautions in attack and proportionality.”

According to OCHA, 1.4 million people in Gaza have been displaced since the start of this crisis. Nearly 672,000 have sought safety in 150 UNRWA schools which are designated shelters.

“Some of these buildings where people are sheltering in, many families crammed together are coming under attack and are being bombed. So, it's hard to find where to describe the horror from first fleeing a home that may have been bombed out completely, seeking shelter [with] family members who are themselves already at wits' end and then being bombed again and again and perhaps again,” said OCHA’s spokesperson Jens Laerke.

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Gaza update - UNICEF - WHO - OHCHR - OCHA

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