GENEVA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday that “children in Gaza face a deadly triple threat represented by the increase in disease outbreaks, malnutrition, and the escalation of Israeli aggression.”
UNICEF said that “thousands of children in Gaza have been killed, while the living conditions for other children deteriorate rapidly with the spread of cases of diarrhea and food poverty, increasing the risks of child mortality.”
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell pointed out that “children in Gaza are trapped in a worsening nightmare day after day.”
She emphasized that “children and their families in the region are being killed and injured in the aggression, and their lives are increasingly at risk due to preventable diseases, as well as the scarcity of food and water.”
She highlighted the “need to protect all children and civilians and provide them with essential services and supplies.”
Russell pointed out that “the agency is working to provide life-saving assistance to children in Gaza,” but she stressed the “urgent need to ensure better and safer access to aid in order to save children’s lives.”
She emphasized that “the future of thousands of children in Gaza is at stake, and the world cannot stand by and watch.”
Earlier, UNICEF had stated that “the increase in cases of diarrhea among children in the Gaza Strip is significant and is a strong indicator of the rapid deterioration of children’s health.”
Cases of diarrhea among children under the age of five in the Gaza Strip increased from 48,000 to 71,000 in one week, starting from December 17th, equivalent to 3,200 new cases of diarrhea per day.
Since October 7th, the Israeli occupation army has been continuing its aggression on the Gaza Strip with American and European support, as its warplanes and artillery bombard hospitals, buildings, towers, and the homes of Palestinian civilians, destroying them over the heads of their inhabitants, and preventing the entry of water, food, medicine, and fuel.
The ongoing Israeli aggression has led to massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, resulting in the death of 22,600 people and the injury of 57,910 others, mostly children and women.
