Geneva: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson, Ricardo Pires, maintained that Israel’s ‘disproportionate response’ in Gaza had left children suffering ‘in their bodies and minds for way too long.’
According to Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA, the UNICEF spokesperson called on Israel to halt its attacks on Gaza and to establish a ceasefire, warning of the grave consequences of Israel’s repeated refusal to allow humanitarian aid into the Strip. “For nearly two years now, children have paid the heaviest price in this crisis,” he said, stressing that children in Gaza have been exposed to “horrors that no child should ever have to look at or live.”
He told a UN press briefing in Geneva that an average of one child has been killed or maimed every 17 minutes, and that many have been traumatized, orphaned, and displaced multiple times – ‘an unacceptable, staggering figure.’
UNICEF further reported that children in Gaza have been exposed to disease and violence on an unprecedented scale. The organization has been denied permission to bring essential medical equipment like incubators and ventilators to children from the north, who desperately need these to survive. Pires highlighted the dire situation by stating, “We’re talking about children sharing oxygen masks in order to stay alive.”
In addition, UNICEF noted that one in five babies in Gaza is now born prematurely, often to mothers weakened by hunger and stress, underscoring the critical need for immediate action to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s youngest residents.
