UNICEF says more than 50 children have been killed in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp in the past 48 hours, with the Save the Children charity saying the high number shows “the intensity of this conflict and this war on children”.
“Children are under constant bombardment, in constant fear,” Rachel Cummings, Save the Children International’s Humanitarian Director and Team Lead in Gaza, told Al Jazeera on Sunday.
More than 16,700 children have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza since October last year, according to Palestinian officials, more than a third of the overall death toll of 43,341 confirmed by health authorities.
Speaking from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Cummings said that the number of casualties among children does not account for the approximately 20,000 who are missing or have become unaccompanied in this war.
Israel has killed more than 1,000 people during its month-long violent siege of Gaza’s north, during which it has blocked the entry of food and medical aid and crippled health facilities.
“People are being constantly bombarded with aerial attacks, and of course, we know that the food and the water are not sufficient. The convoys of food and water are being denied into the north … It is absolutely catastrophic,” Cummings said.
“We are seeing the apocalypse now unfolding in the north of Gaza.”
Dr Hussam Abu Safia from Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza’s only functioning facility, said the hospital has been “flooded with victims”.
He urged the international community and health organisations to press for an “urgent humanitarian passage” to deliver fuel and medical supplies and for specialised medical staff to help with the casualties.
In its statement on Saturday, the UN agency said the children were killed in an Israeli attack which levelled two residential buildings sheltering hundreds of people.
