Jerusalem, Apr 4 (EFE).– At least 100 children are killed or injured every day in Gaza, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), as Israeli airstrikes intensify and humanitarian aid remains blocked.
“Harrowing,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. “At least 100 children are reported killed or injured every day in Gaza since the strikes resumed,” he said, citing UNICEF figures. “Nothing justifies the killing of children.
He lamented that “young lives” were being “cut short in a war not of children’s making,” calling for renewed efforts to protect Gaza’s youngest civilians.
UNICEF figures show that since Israel resumed its military campaign on Mar 18, 322 Palestinian children have been killed and 609 injured. The offensive restarted after the collapse of a brief ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The UN agency said in a statement on Monday that one million children in Gaza are suffering from continuous bombardment and the worsening humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by Israel’s ongoing blockade of aid into the enclave.
Since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, following deadly Hamas attacks on Israeli territory that killed around 1,200 people, more than 15,000 children in Gaza have been killed, over 34,000 injured, and nearly one million displaced, according to UN data.
Lazzarini warned that Gaza has become a forbidden land” for Palestinian children. “The resumption of the war is again robbing them of their childhood. The war has turned Gaza into a ‘no-land’ for children.”
“This is a stain on our common humanity. Nothing justifies the killing of children wherever they are,” he said, urging an immediate return to a ceasefire that had earlier offered children in Gaza “a chance to survive and be children.” EFE
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