The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today that the lives of more than a million children in the Gaza Strip “hang by a thread” due to “the almost total collapse of medical services,” amid the Calls on Israel to protect civilians and prevent attacks on hospitals in its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
“The near total collapse and attacks on medical and health services throughout Gaza, particularly in the northern areas, threaten the lives of all children in the Strip,” the agency said in a statement.
UNICEF warned that care at the Al Rantisi and Al Nasr children’s hospitals “virtually ceased” and “only a small generator supplies power to the intensive care and neonatal intensive care units.”
“Intense attacks and hostilities are reported near Al Rantisi hospital, where children are reportedly on dialysis and in intensive care,” he added.
“Children’s right to life and health are being denied,” said Adele Khodr, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“The protection of hospitals and the delivery of vital medical supplies is an obligation under the laws of war, and both are necessary now,” he claimed.
The lives of “the children of Gaza hang in the balance, especially in the north,” Khodr said, saying: “These children have nowhere to go and are at extreme risk.”
“We call for an immediate halt to attacks on health facilities and for the urgent supply of fuel and medical supplies to hospitals throughout Gaza, including the northern Strip,” he urged.
In its statement, Unicef described that medical facilities in the central and southern areas of the Gaza Strip are “overwhelmed by the treatment of wounded” and also “have to cope with treating the needs of an influx of hundreds of thousands of people in even more densely populated spaces.
“Child health services throughout the Gaza Strip were already severely overwhelmed before the current hostilities, as the health sector lacked adequate physical infrastructure and medical equipment, and services, including water services, were severely disrupted. due to power outages,” Unicef denounced.
“More than 1.5 million displaced people, including 700,000 children, now struggle to access clean water and live in poor sanitation conditions. The risk of waterborne and other diseases is increasing by the day and especially threatens children,” the UN agency explained.
Israel promised to destroy Hamas after that group launched an incursion from Gaza on October 7, in which 1,200 people died, according to the latest balance sheet that updated the figure to 1,400, and captured some 240 hostages, including twenty with Argentina Nationality.
Israel’s attacks in turn left more than 11,000 dead, including some 4,500 children, according to the movement that governs the Gaza Strip.
Source: Ambito