Children killed, burned alive, malnourished and sick, amputated without anesthesia, orphaned, traumatized… More than a year after the start of the war in Gaza, “children continue to suffer indescribable daily suffering,” declared the spokesperson. speech of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), James Elder, during a press briefing in Geneva. Gaza is a veritable “hell on earth” for the million children who live there, while around 40 of them have died every day for a year, Unicef said on Friday.
“Gaza is the real embodiment of hell on earth for its million children. The situation is getting worse day by day as we see the horrific impact of airstrikes and military operations,” the organization worries. On Wednesday, the American newspaper The New York Times claimed that the Israeli army would use civilians, including minors, as human shields to search for explosives or scout inside Hamas tunnels, instead of soldiers.
“If this level of horror doesn’t awaken our humanity and move us to action, then what will? » asks James Elder.
Since the deadly October 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel, which sparked the war, “conservative” estimates put the number of children dead in Gaza at more than 14,100, according to James Elder. This means “that around 35 to 40 girls and boys have been killed every day in Gaza since October 7,” while emphasizing that many of the dead are under debris and rubble.
As for the survivors, they have nowhere to go to be safe while “deprivations affect the entire Gaza Strip”. “Where could the children and their families go? They are not safe in schools and shelters. They are not safe in hospitals. And they are certainly not safe in the overcrowded camps,” noted James Elder.
The UNICEF spokesperson described what life is like for a child in Gaza through the case of a seven-year-old girl, Qamar, hit in the foot during an attack on the Jabalia camp . The only hospital she could be taken to – a maternity ward – was under siege for 20 days. Because she couldn’t be moved and the hospital didn’t have the resources to treat her foot infection, doctors amputated her leg. She, her mother and her also injured sister were then forced to go south on foot. “They are now living in a torn tent, surrounded by stagnant water,” the spokesperson said.
Last October, Unicef declared that Gaza had become “a cemetery for thousands of children”. Two months later, the UN agency estimated that the besieged Palestinian territory was “the most dangerous place in the world for a child”. Now, said James Elder, the situation is “déjà vu, but with even darker aspects”.
