WASHINGTON: The UN children’s agency on Sunday revealed that Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 13,000 children, adding many kids were suffering from severe malnutrition.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said thousands more have been wounded the organization cannot even determine where they are.
She said that many children might be stuck under rubble and they haven’t seen that rate of death among kids in almost any other conflict in the world.
The UN official said she have visited wards of children who are suffering from acute anemia malnutrition, while the whole ward is absolutely quiet as the children, the babies don’t even have enough energy to cry.
Russell added that there were bureaucratic challenges in moving trucks into Gaza carrying aid and assistance.
Global criticism mounted on Israel
Global criticism has increased on Israel because of the mounting death toll in the war, the starvation crisis in Gaza, and accusation of blocking assistance deliveries into the besieged enclave.
A UN expert earlier said that Israel was targeting Gaza’s food mechanism as part of a wider starvation campaign.
Israel’s military campaign on Gaza has displaced nearly its entire 2.3-million-person population, causing starvation crisis, destroyed most of the enclave, and killed over 31,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It has also led to allegations of genocide being investigated in the World Court.
The main UN agency functioning in the Palestinian enclave have said one in three children under age of two in Gaza is now acutely malnourished and famine is looming.
