Israeli attacks kill 122 Palestinians, injure 256 in past 24 hours: Ministry
Israeli military attacks in Gaza have killed 122 Palestinians and injured a further 256 in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
This brings the total Palestinian death toll since October 7 to 22,722, with 58,166 injured, the ministry said.
A further 7,000 Palestinians are still missing.
Ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip
The Israeli military in Khan Younis has widened its operations, trying advance towards the main residential neighbourhoods in the city, which is considered to be one of the hardest cities for Israeli soldiers to fight in.
This is alongside the ongoing and unprecedented bombardment of the middle governorates in the Gaza Strip. In the last hour, there were a number of Palestinians who were injured by Israeli snipers who are deployed on the main linking roads between the villages and towns of the middle area.
People have been informing us that the Israeli forces are trying to encircle Nuseirat, Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps, which is a significant threat to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital there. We are afraid that the scenario of al-Shifa Hospital might be repeated.
Gaza children chronically underfed, extremely traumatised: UNICEF
Children are bearing the brunt of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis as they suffer from months of hunger, trauma and displacement, says Tess Ingram, spokesperson for the UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Ingram pointed to a recent UNICEF survey finding that 90 percent of children under the age of two in Gaza only have access to two main food groups – grain and dairy – compared with five food groups they need for healthy development. “We are very alarmed about the amount of nutrients that young children are getting for their growth and development”, Ingram told Al Jazeera.
The war’s long-term mental health impact on them is equally concerning, she said.
“We’re seeing traumatic stress responses in so many children we engage with. In other conflicts, children may experience trauma, but they have the ability to go to safety. That hasn’t been happening in Gaza,” she said. “Until the fighting stops and children can feel safe, we cannot really begin to assess and respond to their long-term mental health needs.”
Signs of starvation everywhere in southern Gaza
Southern Gaza is now unlivable. Every day, there is a shortage of everything, including food. Signs of starvation are everywhere. There are families that live on one meal a day. Some families do not even have the energy to queue up to get that one meal, so they end up going days without food. On top of that, there is the lack of medical supplies and other essential goods. It is having an impact on the most vulnerable: children.
We cannot stress this enough: children are being targeted both with weapons and with starvation.
Children in Gaza dying ‘in every way possible’
As humanitarian conditions continue to worsen in Gaza, small children are among the most vulnerable.
“They’re dying in every way possible. The death toll had been over 8,000 when you were last able to get an accurate death toll. It’s been several weeks now, so the figure is likely closer to 10,000,” Tanya Haj-Hassan, a doctor with Medecins Sans Frontieres, told Al Jazeera.
“About three months into the Ukraine war, the UN had stated that the lives of children had been devastated on a level not seen since World War Two. At the time, on average, two children were being killed per day. The average number of children being killed per day in Gaza is well over 100.”
