Gaza children still face unrelenting war: UN children's agency

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – After almost 100 days of violence, killing, bombardment, and captivity for children in Gaza, their suffering continues, a UNICEF official said on Friday.

"With every passing day, children and families in the Gaza Strip face increased risk of death from the sky, disease from lack of safe water, and deprivation from lack of food," UNICEF special representative on children in Palestine, Lucia Elmi, said at a UN press conference.

She said for two remaining Israeli children still held hostage in Gaza, their nightmare that began on Oct. 7 continues, and "they must be unconditionally and safely released."

"And the situation continues to deteriorate rapidly, UNICEF last week spoke of the 'triple threat' stalking children in the Gaza Strip: conflict, disease, and malnutrition," said Elmi.

- UNICEF's formidable challenges

The UN children's agency representative said UNICEF is doing everything it can but faces a formidable challenge addressing the issues.

"Children in Gaza are running out of time, while most of the lifesaving humanitarian aid they desperately need remains stranded between insufficient access corridors and protracted layers of inspections," said Elmi.

She asserted that mounting needs and a constrained response is a formula for a disaster of epic proportions.

Thousands of children have already died, and thousands more will quickly follow if urgent bottlenecks are not immediately fixed, said Elim, as she warned that nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip.

"The intense bombardment and ongoing conflict in densely populated urban areas threatens the lives of civilians and humanitarian aid workers," she said.

The ongoing bombardment is also impeding the delivery of desperately needed assistance.

"When I was in Gaza last week, we tried for six days to get fuel and medical supplies to the North, and for six days, movement restrictions prevented us from traveling," said Elmi.

Her colleagues in Gaza endured this same challenge for weeks before her arrival.

"Families in the north desperately need this fuel to operate water and sanitation infrastructure. They are still waiting."

Elmi said that the UN still needs to get sufficient aid into Gaza and that on the preceding day, just 139 trucks entered.

She said that the inspection process needs to be faster and more predictable, as some desperately needed materials are restricted.

The materials include generators to power water facilities and hospitals and plastic pipes to repair badly damaged water infrastructure.

"In addition, once aid gets in, there are significant challenges to distributing it across the Gaza Strip, particularly to the North and recently also the middle area," said Elmi.

"Frequent communications blackouts make it extremely challenging to coordinate the distribution of aid and let people know how to access it and when."

Elmi said that the congestion in the south due to the massive displacement and the intense needs mean continued incidents of people in despair stopping trucks and trying to get their hands on whatever they can.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 23,210 Palestinians and injuring 59,167 others, mostly women and children, according to health authorities.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the initial Hamas attack.