UNICEF REPORTS MORE THAN 340 CHILD DEATHS IN GAZA SINCE CEASEFIRE

UNICEF said on Friday that more than 340 Palestinian children had died in Gaza since Israel and Hamas announced a ceasefire just over a year ago. The agency said hundreds more children had suffered injuries during that period. In the past two weeks, UNICEF received reports that air strikes, drone strikes and gunfire killed five boys and two girls and seriously injured at least 33 children. Two other boys died from earlier injuries, spokesperson Ricardo Pires told journalists in Geneva. “Those terrible statistics do not equate with a ceasefire as most would imagine one,” Pires said.

Pires said about 800,000 Palestinian children remained displaced, most of them in tents or damaged buildings. He estimated that 60,000 had lost one or both parents and that nearly all needed some form of mental health support. Pires described Norhan, whose mother died the day after giving birth following a shooting while pregnant. Norhan now cares for her sister Narjis and helps three other siblings with their studies after they attend a UNICEF-supported learning centre. Pires said Norhan’s father lives with a disability.

Pires warned that children faced a fourth winter in Gaza as temperatures fell. He said all six wastewater treatment plants were out of service and most raw sewage flowed into the sea. The Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin was half full and could overflow into residential areas during winter rain, he said. Pires said workers could drain it within two weeks, but Israel had not allowed the necessary equipment into Gaza. He urged Israeli authorities to admit materials, spare parts, generators and fuel, and called for a continuous flow of humanitarian and commercial goods.