Updated: 8:15am, 19th March (AEDT)
Washington
Reuters
The UN children’s agency said on Sunday over 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s offensive, adding many kids were suffering from severe malnutrition and did not “even have the energy to cry.”
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell did not provide a source for the child fatality figure during an interview with CBS News.
When asked if Russell was referring to the agency’s own estimate or was basing the figure on reporting from authorities in Hamas-governed Gaza, a UNICEF spokesperson pointed to a press statement by the UN children’s agency that attributed the figure to Gaza’s health ministry.
“Thousands more have been injured or we can’t even determine where they are. They may be stuck under rubble…We haven’t seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world,” Russell told CBS News’ Face the Nation program.
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on 5th March, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Mohammed Salem/File photo
“I’ve been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anemia malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet. Because the children, the babies…don’t even have the energy to cry.”
Russell said there were “very great bureaucratic challenges” moving trucks into Gaza for aid and assistance.
A March 14 infographic from OCHA, the UN humanitarian office, cites the Gaza government media office as saying that over 13,000 children and at least 9,000 women have been killed in Gaza since 7th October. U.N. agencies have relied on Gaza authorities for casualty information during the war.
International criticism has mounted on Israel due to the death toll of the war, the starvation crisis in Gaza, and allegations of blocking aid deliveries into the enclave.
A UN expert said earlier this month that Israel was destroying Gaza’s food system as part of a broader “starvation campaign.” Israel rejected the accusation.
Israel’s military assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has displaced nearly its entire 2.3 million-person population, caused a starvation crisis, flattened most of the enclave, and killed over 31,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It has also led to accusations of genocide being probed in the World Court.
Israel denies the genocide charges and says it is acting in self defense after the 7th October attack on Israel from Hamas that killed some 1,200, according to Israeli tallies, and took scores of hostages.
One in three children under age two in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished and famine is looming, the main UN agency operating in the Palestinian enclave said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would keep on with the military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, where aid agencies say famine is looming, while ceasefire talks were set to resume.
Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that Israel would push into Rafah, the last relatively safe place in the tiny, crowded Gaza enclave after more than five months of war, despite international pressure for Israel to avoid civilian casualties.
“We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen,” he said, without clarifying if he meant the assault would last for weeks or would begin in weeks.
He later said after meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Jerusalem that Israel would not leave civilians trapped in Rafah when its forces begin their assault.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers his speech after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Jerusalem, on 17th March, 2024. PICTURE: Leo Correa/Pool via Reuters
Israel’s allies have piled pressure on Netanyahu not to attack Rafah, where more than a million displaced people from other parts of the devastated enclave have sought shelter, without a plan to protect civilians.
At a joint news conference, Scholz said he had spoken with Netanyahu about the need to provide comprehensive humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza.
“We cannot stand by and watch Palestinians risk starvation,” Scholz said, echoing a call from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, visiting neighbouring Egypt at the same time, for a ceasefire deal and more aid for Gaza.
“It is critical to achieve an agreement on a ceasefire rapidly now that frees (Israel’s) hostages and allows more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza,” von der Leyen said after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
At the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu had hit out at his allies, saying: “Are your memories that short? Have you so quickly forgotten October 7, the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust? Are you so quick to deny Israel the right to defend itself against the Hamas monsters?”.
We rely on our readers to fund Sight's work - become a financial supporter today!
For more information, head to our Subscriber's page.
Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people and seized 253 hostages in the 7th October attack according to Israeli tallies, triggering a massive assault on Gaza.
Israel’s air and ground campaign in the enclave has killed more than 31,600 people say health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, driven most of the population from their homes and brought them to the brink of famine according to aid agencies.
A source familiar with truce talks in Qatar told Reuters the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency would join the delegation attending the negotiations with Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators.
Hamas presented a new ceasefire proposal last week including an exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s security cabinet is to meet to discuss it before the delegation leaves.
Smoke rises from Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from Israel’s border with Gaza, in southern Israel, on 17th March, 2024. PICTURE: Reuters/Amir Cohen
Netanyahu has already said the proposal was based on “unrealistic demands”, but a Palestinian official familiar with mediation efforts said chances for a deal looked better with Hamas having given more details on the proposed prisoner swap.
“Some in Israel felt [Hamas] made some improvement on its previous position and it is now in the hands of Netanyahu alone to say whether an agreement is imminent,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, in an apparent reference to the negotiations, said the security establishment “is committed to exhausting every possibility and willing to take advantage of every possibility, including the current one, to return the hostages to their families”.
Aid delivery
Trucks of flour have reached northern Gaza for distribution to areas that have had no aid in four months, Palestinian media reported on Sunday.
A convoy of 12 trucks arrived in the north on Saturday carrying supplies to be distributed to the northernmost areas, the media and residents said.
The Hamas-linked Home Front media outlet reported that the aid was distributed by the “Popular Committees”, a group that includes leaders of powerful clans in Gaza. A Hamas source said the route was secured by Hamas security personnel.
Hospitals in the north have already reported children dying of malnutrition and dehydration.
