to report «iusnews»; Children in Gaza have been suffering from hellish conditions, UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder said in a statement on Friday, warning that the situation could get worse.
“At the start of this war, UNICEF said Gaza was a ‘graveyard for children and a living hell for everyone else.’ It has only gotten worse as the bombing and fighting have continued,” the statement read, CNN reported.
Elder, who just returned from a weeks-long mission in Gaza, warned of the severe repercussions of food, water and medicine shortages on children.
“[C]hildren in Gaza are now in danger from the sky, disease on the ground, and death from hunger and thirst,” Elder said, adding that had never seen that level of devastation and despair anywhere else.
Elder told CNN’s Isa Soares Thursday that parents he’s been talking to in Gaza have realized hospitals are no longer an option for their children due to the continuous attacks that have made hospitals harder to reach.
“Most crises they impact children terribly because children are the most vulnerable, but most have about a casualty rate of children around 20%, this [Gaza conflict] is 40 [%],” he said, adding, “This is twice as lethal to children as many conflicts we’ve seen in the last 15 or 20 years.”
Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7. The number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing Israeli onslaught on Gaza has reached 18,800, local authorities said on Friday.
According to a statement by the Gaza-based Government Media Office, 51,000 Palestinians have so far been injured by the Israeli army in Gaza in 70 days of the deadly war. The statement also said 8,000 children and 6,200 women were among those killed.
