Geneva: The UN Agency for Children (UNICEF) affirmed on Friday that there was no safe place in the Gaza Strip. Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said: "The question I am asked everywhere in Gaza City - from women, from the elderly, and from children - is: 'Where can I go that will be safe?'"
According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, Elder emphasized the dire situation by stating that the answer to the question of safety remains unchanged after almost two years: nowhere in the Gaza Strip is considered safe. He voiced particular concern for mothers and newborns in the area, describing scenes of children pushing grandparents in wheelchairs through rubble, amputee children struggling through dust, and mothers carrying children with bleeding rashes. The children, he noted, are constantly traumatized by relentless airstrikes and the sight of helicopters and quadcopters overhead.
Elder refuted claims made by Israel regarding the existence of 'safe zones' in the south of the Gaza Strip. He described these areas, such as Al-Mawasi, as extremely overcrowded and lacking basic necessities for survival. The notion of 'safe zones,' he remarked, is farcical as bombs are predictably dropped from the sky, and schools designated as temporary shelters are regularly demolished. Tents set up in empty lots fail to provide protection from shrapnel and are often engulfed by fire from air attacks.
Highlighting the severe repercussions of these so-called 'safe zones,' Elder noted that women are experiencing miscarriages during their exhausting treks from the north to the south. Doctors fear that winter viruses may have arrived early, and reports indicate that 1,000 babies have been killed in the past two years, with an unknown number of additional deaths due to preventable illnesses.
In addition to the more than 400,000 people forced to flee south, Elder reported that another 200,000 civilians have been warned to leave Gaza City.
