Palestinian children will become ‘lost generation’ without Gaza cease-fire: UNRWA chief

By Raşa Evrensel

ISTANBUL (AA) – The head of the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) warned Thursday that without a cease-fire in Gaza, a "lost generation" is imminent.

“Children suffer first + suffer most in conflicts & wars. In #Gaza it is no different. Children have gone through what no child anywhere in the world should see or undergo. Far too many were killed, far too many were injured & far too many will be scarred for life. Those who survived are in deep trauma…The war robbed the children of #Gaza of their childhood,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.

He warned that “without a cease-fire, they will become a lost generation.”

Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 37,200 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 84,900 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio