More than 8,663 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7, according to the government media office, which added that thousands more are missing under the rubble amid relentless bombardment.
An overwhelming number of the more than 21,000 people killed in Israel’s nearly three months of bombing, the most destructive in recent history, have been civilians. Israel has repeatedly targeted schools and even neonatal care centers have not been spared, resulting in the deaths of newborns.
According to data from Save the Children in early November, a child was killed every 10 minutes. The UN has called the besieged Palestinian enclave a “graveyard” for children due to the high number of casualties.
“Our deepest fears that the number of children killed would run into the dozens, then hundreds, and eventually thousands, were realized in just a fortnight,” said James Elder, a spokesperson for the Fund. of the United Nations for Children (UNICEF), October 31.
“Gaza has become a cemetery for thousands of children. It’s hell for everyone.
The NGO Defense for Children International-Palestine said early last month that Israeli forces had killed twice as many Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip in October as the total number of Palestinian children killed in the occupied West Bank and elsewhere. Gaza united since 1967.
In almost two years of the Russo-Ukrainian war, 510 children have been killed, which amounts to just under one child per day.
Last week, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that limited access to clean water and sanitation amid Israel’s continued bombing poses a serious risk to children Gaza.
Displaced children in southern Gaza do not have enough water to meet their basic survival needs, said Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Agency.
“Without clean water, many more children will die from deprivation and disease in the coming days,” Russell said.
In the southern city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people – half of them children – have fled since early December, the situation of water supply and sanitation systems is “in an extremely critical state”, Russell added.
Water shortages have already contributed to a 20-fold increase in the monthly average of diarrhea cases among children under five, she said.
More than half a million people in Gaza – a quarter of the population – are dying of starvation, according to a report from the United Nations and other agencies released Thursday.
Israel launched this brutal war following the Hamas attack that left some 1,139 people dead. The Palestinian resistance group also captured some 240 people. Israel has vowed to continue its military offensive until it calls for the destruction of Hamas and the release of all prisoners.
But his military tactics have been criticized for widespread bombing that caused unprecedented destruction and loss of life. Human rights organizations and United Nations agencies have spoken out against Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinian people.