An average of 28 children are killed daily in Gaza, and more than 17,000 kids have reportedly been killed in the ongoing war in the besieged Palestinian enclave, UNICEF said Wednesday.
Speaking before the UN Security Council, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said each of Gaza's one million children has faced immense suffering. According to Russell, these children will face lifelong impacts.
“Over the past 21 months of war, more than 17,000 children have reportedly been killed and 33,000 injured in Gaza. An average of 28 children have been killed each day, the equivalent of an entire classroom," she said.
"Consider that for a moment: a whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years. These children are not combatants – they are being killed and maimed as they line up for lifesaving food and medicine.”
In Israel's response to recent reports of its strikes in Gaza killing dozens of children, the Israeli military maintained it remained “committed to the rule of law.”
According to the Israel Defence Force, a 10 July attack that killed at least 10 children waiting to receive nutritional supplements at a Project Hope-run medical clinic in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, was caused by a "technical error."
The strike targeting an Islamic Jihad "terrorist" caused the munition to fall dozens of metres from the target, it said. The incident is under review, the military added.
Increasing deaths come amid food shortages
The growing number of deaths of children, women, and civilians in Israeli strikes on Gaza comes amid food shortages.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the Security Council on Wednesday that food supplies are running out and civilians are being shot while seeking something to eat.
"Civilians are exposed to death and injury, forcible displacement, and stripped of dignity,” Fletcher told the UN Security Council, emphasising Israel’s obligation under the Geneva Conventions to provide food and medical aid as the occupying power in Gaza.
He also challenged the council to consider whether Israel’s rules of engagement incorporate all the precautions to avoid and minimise civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, at least twenty Palestinians were killed at a food distribution in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, mostly from a stampede.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting unrest at the food distribution centre, causing the stampede.
They were the first deaths reported at one of the food distribution centres run by an Israeli-backed American organisation, though hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces on the roads leading to them, according to witnesses and health officials.
