THE United Nations says at least 100 children have been killed or injured every day in Gaza since the strikes resumed on March 18, even as the United States underscores continued support for Israel.
“Nothing justifies the killing of children,” Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), posted on X on Saturday.
He said Israel was turning the besieged territory into a “no land” for children and lamented that “young lives” were being “cut short in a war not of children’s making”.
“This is a stain on our common humanity,” Lazzarini said.
UNICEF said at least 322 children were reported to have been killed since Israel renewed its offensive on March 18, shattering a two-month shaky ceasefire that took effect on January 19.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell on Monday said the ceasefire had “provided a desperately needed lifeline for Gaza’s children and hope for a path to recovery”.
“But children have again been plunged into a cycle of deadly violence and deprivation,” she said.
Marking the Palestine Children’s Day, observed annually on April 5, the Palestinian Ministry of Education on Saturday said children are among the most targeted victims of Israeli aggression, with more than 17,000 of them killed in Gaza since October 2023.
The “figure reflects the depth of the tragedy children are enduring, with each number representing a life, memories, and experiences lost”, the ministry said.
Palestinian group Hamas also condemned what it said was Israel’s policy of “deliberate killing, detention, and torture of children, as well as the deprivation of their basic human rights”.
It warned that Israel’s “impunity encourages further escalation of crimes against Palestinian children”.
“Approximately 1,100 children have been detained by the Israeli army since October 7, 2023, and about 39,000 others have lost one or both parents due to the violence,” Hamas said in a statement.
