The United Nations Children’s Agency said that at least 322 children have been killed since Israel launched a renewed offensive in Gaza two weeks ago.
UNICEF said that at least 609 other children were injured during the same period.
“The ceasefire in Gaza provided a desperately necessary life buoy for the children of Gaza and hoped for a path to the resumption,” said UNICEF Director Catherine Russell. “But the children were again immersed in a cycle of fatal violence and deprivation.”
Israel launched its Gaza offensive renewed on March 18, blaming Hamas for rejecting a new American proposal to extend the ceasefire and release the 59 hostages still in captivity in Gaza.
Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of having violated the initial agreement they had accepted in January.
UNICEF said that “implacable and blind bombings” had resumed Gaza, with 100 children killed or mutilated every day in March 10.
Most of the children who were killed had been moved and sheltered in makeshift tents or damaged houses, he said.
UNICEF uses figures published by the Ministry of Health of Hamas in Gaza – figures that Israel has constantly disputed. The figures are considered by the UN and other international institutions as being reliable.
International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel to penetrate Gaza independently, are therefore not able to check the figures on each side.
Israeli defense forces (FRI) told the BBC that it “was determined to alleviate civil damage during operational activity” and to “respect all applicable international legal obligations, including the law of armed conflicts”.
He said that he “made great efforts to estimate and consider potential civilian collateral damage to his strikes”.
Since the start of the war over 18 months ago, UNICEF said that 15,000 children have been killed, more than 34,000 injured have been injured and that nearly a million children have been moved several times.
The humanitarian situation across Gaza has worsened considerably in recent weeks, Israel refusing to authorize the aid to the Gaza Strip since March 2 – blocking the longest aid since the start of the war.
“Without these essential supplies, malnutrition, diseases and other avoidable conditions will probably increase, resulting in the death of avoidable people,” Unicef wrote in a press release.
The UN announced that it reduced its operations to Gaza on March 24, one day after eight Palestinian doctors, the first six stakeholders in the Civil Defense and a member of the UN UN staff were killed by Israeli forces In the south of Gaza.
The FDI launched a campaign to destroy Hamas, which is appointed a terrorist group by Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries, in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, more than 50,399 people were killed in Gaza during the war that followed.
