One child killed or injured every ten minutes in Gaza: UNICEF

Children in Gaza have become the faces of the ongoing war painting a “harrowing picture” of the conflict, a UNICEF official said on Tuesday.

“From devastating injuries sustained in airstrikes, to the trauma of being caught in violent clashes, their stories paint a harrowing picture of the human consequences of conflict,” UNICEF communications specialist Tess Ingram – who left Gaza on Monday after spending two weeks there – told a UN press briefing in Geneva.

More than 12,000 children were injured in Gaza since October 7, 2023, she said, and this is “almost certainly an underestimate.”

With at least 70 children injured in Gaza every day, often left to “languish in pain,” according to Ingram, there is an urgent need to increase the number of medical evacuations to facilitate access to proper care.

“With one child killed or injured every 10 minutes, above anything else we need a ceasefire,” Ingram said.

She added: “Imagine being strip-searched, left naked and questioned for hours. Told that you are safe and you can leave, you quickly walk away down the street, praying. But then, you are shot at. Your father is killed and a bullet penetrates your naked pelvis causing serious internal and external injuries that will require reconstructive surgery.”

As mediators eye a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and prevent a wider regional spill, the Israeli military has said it would continue to press on its offensive and would not be distracted from its war against Hamas, triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s attack on October 7.

Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has so far killed at least 33,797 Palestinians and wounded 76,465, the Gaza health ministry said on Monday.

Hamas’ October attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli figures.

A lasting truce “is the only way to stop the killing and maiming of children,” Ingram said.