AT least 18,885 children are among the more than 62,000 Palestinians killed by Israel since the start of its genocidal war in Gaza nearly two years ago, Gaza’s Government Media Office has said.
The staggering, grim toll comes as the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Tuesday that no place is safe for children in the enclave, where Israeli-induced starvation is rife due to Israel’s blockading of desperately-needed aid and medical supplies.
UN-run schools have become shelters for “hundreds of thousands of people” in Gaza amid constant Israeli bombardments that have levelled homes, UNRWA said.
Palestinians have “sought protection under the UN flag”, only for the shelters to be targeted, becoming a “place for death, including for too many children. No place is safe for children in Gaza. Ceasefire now”, the agency said.
Citing the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, UNRWA noted that in the past five months of the war, since Israel unilaterally shattered a ceasefire deal and resumed attacks, “an average of over 540 children have been killed every month, per reports”.
Footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows the final moments of 12-year-old Amna al-Mufti, killed by Israeli forces while carrying water for her family and her father’s grief.
The UN warnings come as at least 51 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks since dawn on Tuesday.
Among them are at least eight aid seekers who lost their lives when Israeli forces opened fire near the United States and Israeli-backed GHF aid distribution sites, a daily deadly gauntlet Palestinians have suffered, leading to nearly 2,000 deaths since late May.
Hospitals in Gaza said at least eight people were killed in attacks on tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, and four more were killed in a strike on a tent in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.
Israeli forces are also stepping up an assault on Gaza City, despite global warnings urging Israel to cease expanding operations there. An air raid in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood killed at least four people and wounded others, health officials said.
In southern Gaza City, Israeli forces blew up houses, while heavy fire was reported in the Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir-el-Balah, said Israeli forces have been launching “a deadly barrage of air strikes on densely populated areas” in Gaza City.
“In addition to destroying over 450 residential blocks in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, Israel’s operations have now expanded to the nearby Sabra area. These areas lead to the main heart of Gaza City,” Abu Azzoum said.
Meanwhile, key mediator Qatar has confirmed that Hamas responded positively to a Gaza ceasefire proposal, including a 60-day truce and partial captives-for-prisoners exchange.
Two Israeli officials on Tuesday said Israel is studying Hamas’s response to the proposal, without providing more details. But Israeli media reported that the far-right Israeli government wants all the captives held in Gaza, alive and dead, returned all at once.