UNICEF said children and families in Gaza have practically run out of food, water, electricity, medicine and safe access to hospitals, following days of air strikes and cuts to all supply routes. (Photo: UNICEF/Mohammad Ajjour)
“Hundreds and hundreds of children have been killed and injured” in Gaza and the number is rising hourly, the United Nations Children’s Fund said Friday.
“The killing of children must stop," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said in a statement. “The images and stories are clear: children with horrendous burns, mortar wounds, and lost limbs. And hospitals are utterly overwhelmed to treat them.”
Elder joined calls from the international community saying, “Israeli children being held hostage in Gaza must be safely and immediately reunited with their families and loved ones.”
“The humanitarian situation has reached lethal lows, and yet all reports point to further attacks. Compassion – and international law – must prevail,” he said. “UNICEF is calling for an immediate cease fire as 1.1 million people – nearly half of them children – have been warned to move out of the way,” adding there is “nowhere safe for civilians to go.”
Elder concluded: “In every war, the ones who suffer the most are children. This is tragically true today."
(CNN)
