UNICEF says health facilities in the besieged Gaza strip remain severely under-equipped as they struggle to treat children who are sick, injured and malnourished.
“I visited four hospitals in the last five days, and I can tell you that every medical director has told me about the impact of the lack of resources and the lack of staff,” UNICEF’s spokeswoman Tess Duncan said from outside the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah.
“They’re running at four times capacity. Children are dying due to infections. Children are dying from malnutrition. There’s just not enough staff and resources to go around… That’s why we have to rush this aid in, and that’s why we need a ceasefire.”
Elsewhere in her remarks, Duncan said there are still serious challenges to transporting aid to those most in need due to ongoing violence, collapsed infrastructure, travel restrictions and a shortage of fuel and vehicles.
“The obstacles are many, but we’re still doing our best in these really difficult circumstances to bring food and water and medicine and nutrition treatments to the vulnerable that need it.”
James Elder, another UNICEF spokesperson, earlier said Gaza was becoming a living hell for Palestinians.
“Gaza has become a graveyard for children. It’s a living hell for everyone else. And yet the threats to children go beyond bombs and mortars.”
According to multiple reports, corroborated by the Palestinian Health Ministry as well as the Defense for Children International (DCI) NGO, one child is being killed in Gaza every 10 minutes.
The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing increasingly dire conditions. The US-Israeli onslaught has entered the seventh month now.
Israel has killed over 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza since October 7.
