Image Source: ABC News
Gaza – UNICEF has condemned the escalating death toll among Palestinian children following a weekend of deadly Israeli airstrikes that killed over 50 children in Jabalia.
The strikes flattened residential buildings that were providing shelter to hundreds of displaced Palestinian families, adding yet another dark chapter to what UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell has described as an indiscriminate assault on Gaza’s most vulnerable civilians.
“Taken alongside the horrific level of child deaths in North Gaza from other attacks, these most recent events combine to write yet another dark chapter in one of the darkest periods of this terrible war.”
Moreover, a vehicle of a UNICEF staff member was also reportedly fired upon by a quadcopter while driving through Jabalia, narrowly escaping harm but left deeply shaken by the incident, which highlighted the severe risks faced by humanitarian workers in Gaza amid Israel’s unrelenting strikes.
“The attacks on Jabalia, the vaccination clinic and the UNICEF staff member are yet further examples of the grave consequences of the indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza strip.”
In addition to the devastation in Jabalia, a separate attack near a vaccination clinic in Sheikh Radwan injured three children as they awaited polio vaccinations.
Therefore, UNICEF is urging Israeli authorities to conduct a prompt investigation into the attacks on its staff and hold those responsible accountable. They are also calling on member states to prioritise the safety of Gaza’s children and to exert their influence in ensuring that international law is respected and upheld.
“Attacks on civilians, including humanitarian workers, and what remains of Gaza’s civilian facilities and infrastructure must stop. The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza, especially children, is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and the ongoing bombardments.”
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Save the Children Backs UNICEF’s Call for Global Action in Gaza
Supporting UNICEF’s call for urgent intervention, Jeremy Stoner, Regional Director of Save the Children, voiced his outrage at the rising death toll among Gaza’s children, condemning Israel’s repeated attacks that have left Gaza’s youngest residents as the primary victims.
He questioned the silence of global leaders in the face of such atrocities, asking, “How many times must children in Gaza face mass slaughter? What will it take for world powers to say ‘enough’?”
“Every war is a war on children. In Gaza, casualties have escalated from including children to mostly women and children and, as in this latest attack, to mostly children. Children should never be considered acceptable “collateral”, but here, they’re not unfortunate bystanders caught up in conflict – they are directly under attack. “
Stoner and others stressed that protecting civilians—especially children—is a fundamental principle of international law and a shared human responsibility. Yet, he observed, these principles have been forsaken in Gaza, where relentless attacks have reduced the lives of thousands of Palestinian children to mere statistics in an overwhelming ledger of human suffering.
“Behind the numbers, every single child killed isn’t just a life extinguished, but a parent’s, a sibling’s, entire universe. And that kind of loss can never be quantified.”
Issuing a call for immediate global intervention against Israeli strikes, Stoner warned that without urgent action, “an entire generation of children in Gaza will be erased, along with their futures.”
