GENEVA (WAM)
James Elder, Spokesperson for the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF), described Gaza as the real-world embodiment of hell on earth for its one million children.
During a press conference, he said that the situation in the Gaza Strip is “getting worse, day-by-day, as we see the horrific impact of the daily airstrikes and military operations on Palestinian children.”
He stressed that despite immense efforts from all aid agencies, children continue to suffer unspeakable daily harm, with shortages of food, water and medicine, adding that the “these so called ‘humanitarian zones’ – beyond their lack of food, water and medicine – they too have been bombed.”
The UNICEF Spokesperson revealed that just 80 trucks carrying food or water assistance have been permitted into northern Gaza since October 2, renewing the UNICEF and its UN colleagues continuos pleas for a long-term sustainable ceasefire for the return of the hostages, the resumption of commercial traffic and the ability to use additional routes for the safe transport of cargo, in addition to the unimpeded humanitarian access, as well as funding for all of their programmes, which remain dangerously underfunded.
“Al Mawasi makes up around 3 percent of Gaza in terms of land mass. It had a population of 9,000 before this war. It now has around 730,000. It has no capacity to host a population of that size. Most of its land is sand hills,” he added.