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<h1>Gaza has become a ‘graveyard’ for thousands of children: UN</h1><p class="gmail-article__subhead gmail-css-1wt8oh6"><em>An average of 420 Palestinian children have been killed or injured every day in the Gaza Strip since October 7.</em></p><div class="gmail-responsive-image"><img src="https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-1742667356-1698402951.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80" alt="" width="435" height="290" style="margin-right: 25px;"></div>Medics
treat three wounded Palestinian children at Al-Aqsa Hospital following
an Israeli air attack, in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on
October 24 [Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images]<div class="gmail-article-info-block gmail-css-ti04u9"><div class="gmail-article-b-l" style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><div class="gmail-article-dates" style="border-color:rgb(250,144,0)"><div class="gmail-date-simple gmail-css-1yjq2zp"><span class="gmail-screen-reader-text">Published On 31 Oct 2023 - </span>h<font size="1">ttps://<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/31/gaza-has-become-a-graveyard-for-thousands-of-children-un">www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/31/gaza-has-become-a-graveyard-for-thousands-of-children-un</a></font><span aria-hidden="true"></span></div></div></div><div class="gmail-social-share-buttons"><a class="gmail-social-share-button" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fgt8qyu"></a></div></div><a class="gmail-social-share-button" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-label="Share on Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Gaza%20a%20%E2%80%98graveyard%E2%80%99%20for%20children%2C%20a%20%E2%80%98living%20hell%E2%80%99%20for%20everyone%20else&source=sharethiscom&related=sharethis&via=AJEnglish&url=https%3A%2F%2Faje.io%2Fgt8qyu"></a><div class="gmail-article-info-block gmail-css-ti04u9"><div class="gmail-social-share-buttons"></div></div><div class="gmail-wysiwyg gmail-wysiwyg--all-content gmail-css-ibbk12"><p>The Gaza Strip is now a graveyard for <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/25/over-2000-children-killed-in-gaza-a-stain-on-our-collective-conscience">thousands of children</a>, the United Nations has said, as it warned of the prospect of more dying of dehydration amid <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/israel-palestine-conflict/">Israel’s war</a> on the besieged enclave.</p>
<p>The Israeli army has widened its air and ground attacks on Gaza –
including houses and hospitals – which has been under relentless air
raids since the surprise offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas on
October 7 that killed 1,400 people in Israel, according to Israeli
officials.</p>
<p>More than 8,500 Palestinians, mostly children and women, have been killed, Gaza’s health ministry said.</p>
<p>“Our gravest fears about the reported numbers of children killed
becoming dozens, then hundreds, and ultimately thousands were realised
in just a fortnight,” James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said in a statement on Tuesday.</p>
<p>“The numbers are appalling; reportedly more than 3,450 children killed; staggeringly this rises significantly every day.”</p>
<p>“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.”</p>
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<p>Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF, also said that
at least 6,300 children have been injured due to the Israeli attacks.</p></div><p>This means that on average, 420 Palestinian children are killed or injured every day in the Gaza Strip, she explained.</p>
<p>“These numbers should shock and shake us to the core,” Russell said.</p>
<p>The body called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, with all
access crossings into the Gaza Strip opened for the safe, sustained and
unimpeded access of humanitarian aid, including water, food, medical
supplies, and fuel.</p>
<p>“And if there is no ceasefire, no water, no medicine, and no release
of abducted children? Then we hurtle towards even greater horrors
afflicting innocent children,” said Elder.</p>
<p>The spokesman said that according to figures from health faculties in Gaza, some 940 children were missing.</p>
<p>UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
spokesman Jens Laerke added: “It’s almost unbearable to think about
children buried under rubble, but [with] very little opportunity or
possibility for getting them out.”</p>
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<h2 id="gmail-threats-beyond-bombs">Threats beyond bombs</h2>
<p>An Israeli blockade of the Strip has also cut Gaza off from fuel,
electricity and water supplies, and reduced aid deliveries to a small
trickle unable to satisfy the needs of the 2.3 million Palestinians
there.</p>
<p>Elder said the threats to children “go beyond bombs”, stressing that
water and trauma are among other threats faced in the besieged
Palestinian enclave.</p>
<p>He warned that more than one million children in Gaza face a critical
water crisis as Gaza’s daily water output is at five percent of its
production capacity.</p>
<p>“So, child deaths to dehydration, particularly infant deaths to dehydration, are a growing threat,” he said.</p>
<p>On trauma, the spokesperson said: “When finally the fighting stops,
the cost to children and their communities are going to be borne out for
generations to come.”</p>
<p>Elder stressed that before the current conflict began, more than
800,000 children in Gaza – three-quarters of its entire child population
– were identified as in need of mental health and psychological
support.</p>
<p> </p>
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<p>Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general for the UN Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said that almost 70 percent
of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip during the past three weeks
were children and women.</p>
<p>The number of children killed in Gaza since October 7 has surpassed
the number of children killed annually across the world’s conflict zones
since 2019, he said.</p>
<p>“This cannot be ‘collateral damage,'” <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/un-security-council-emergency-briefing-situation-middle-east" target="_blank">he said</a> on Monday evening, adding that there is no safe place in the blockaded territory due to the heavy Israeli bombardment.</p>
</div><div class="gmail-article-source">Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies</div>
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