Elder said a ceasefire was the only way to help the children, adding that Gaza “is not a place for children right now”.
The number of children killed in the besieged Gaza Strip since October 7 has surpassed 14,000, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said.
“Reports are now that more than 14,000 girls and boys have been killed in Gaza,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said on X on Friday.
“Perhaps we should say that slowly. Fourteen thousand. Perhaps we should do something. And surely that ‘something’ is not a military offensive in Rafah,” Elder said.
‘War against Children’ – UNICEF Spokesman Calls for Ceasefire in Gaza
“Ceasefire. Now,” he emphasized, reiterating the call he made last month when he said “a war against children” was unfolding in the enclave.
Elder said a ceasefire was the only way to help the children, adding that Gaza “is not a place for children right now, but there are more than a million children” there.
‘Every 10 Minutes’
Earlier this week, UNICEF Communication Specialist Tess Ingram said at least 70 children were injured each day in Gaza, adding that one child was “killed or injured every ten minutes.”
“And with one child killed or injured every ten minutes, above anything else, we need a ceasefire. It is the only way to stop the killing and maiming of children,” Ingram told a UN press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
‘Horrors of War’ – UNICEF Says 70 Children Injured Every Day in Gaza
Ingram, who left Gaza on Monday after spending two weeks there, said “These children have become the faces of the ongoing war,” she said. “From devastating injuries sustained in airstrikes to the trauma of being caught in violent clashes, their stories paint a harrowing picture of the human consequences of conflict.”
Women and Children
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 34,012 Palestinians have been killed, and 76,833 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
