GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that one Palestinian child is killed every hour in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israeli genocide.
In an X post, Lazzarini said that “killing children cannot be justified. These are not numbers. These are lives cut short.”
“Those who survive are scarred physically and emotionally. Deprived of learning, boys and girls in Gaza sift through the rubble,” he added.
“The clock is ticking for these children. They are losing their lives, their futures and mostly their hope,” he further said.
Some 96 percent of children in Gaza believe death is imminent, while 49 percent expressed a wish to die due to the relentless war, a new report by the Community Training Center for Crisis Management (CTCCM), supported by War Child Alliance, has revealed.
The study, based on interviews with over 500 Palestinian children and caregivers, highlights the devastating psychological impact of Israel’s ongoing military onslaught on Gaza’s children. It found that 92 percent of the children surveyed struggle to accept their reality. Many reported feelings of severe fear, aggression, withdrawal and pervasive hopelessness.
Helen Pattinson, CEO of War Child UK, described Gaza as “one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child.” She called for immediate international action, urging a ceasefire as a critical first step.
“The international community must act now before the child mental health catastrophe we are witnessing embeds itself into multi-generational trauma, the consequences of which the region will be dealing with for decades to come. A ceasefire must be the immediate first step to allow War Child and other agencies to effectively respond to the intense psychological damage children are experiencing,” she warned.
