UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25 (NNN-XINHUA) – In Gaza, one child has been killed on average every hour, for almost two years, leaving children trapped in a graveyard, the UN humanitarian chief said, yesterday.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, said, children have been bombed, maimed, starved, burned alive, buried in the rubble of their homes, and separated from their parents.
During an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s High-Level Week, Fletcher said, humanitarians must be given access to reach Gaza’s women, children and older people, who “cannot eat statements of concern.”
“In Gaza, the lucky children sleep in tents,” he said. “In Gaza, shelters are bombed, and schools have become sites of horror, depriving over 700,000 children of their right to education.”
Fletcher said, the suffering of children is not limited to Gaza but also in the West Bank, where children are subjected to escalating levels of violence, including by the illegal settlers.
Fletcher said, a lawless world stripped of dignity and hope, must not be bequeathed to children. “We do not have to choose between fighting anti-semitism and holding Israel to the same laws as everyone else,” he said, adding that, the world must join together in calling for a ceasefire.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that, Israeli military operations have continued across the Gaza Strip, including in several neighbourhoods of Gaza City, where people were reportedly murdered and injured, and infrastructure was damaged. The Gaza health authorities have warned that fuel is urgently needed for hospital generators.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), reported on Tuesday that, escalating violence near the Al-Rantisi and Ophthalmic hospitals in Gaza City, made them non-functional, unsafe and inaccessible, forcing patients and staff to flee for safety.
“With hundreds of thousands of people still in Gaza City and health facilities shutting down, more lives will be lost,” the WHO said.
From the beginning of this year to mid-Sept, the WHO said, it recorded 145 attacks on health care in Gaza, with more than 100 health care workers killed.
OCHA said, its partners reported that, people continue to be displaced from Gaza City southward to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. On Monday, 20,000 people, many of whom were on foot, passed by monitoring points in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. The United Nations and partners distributed bread and water to some of the displaced passing by.
“Humanitarians continue to do whatever they can to reach people in need across the Gaza Strip, both in the north and the south,” said the office.– NNN-XINHUA
