Chief of UN children’s agency says aid situation ‘beyond catastrophic’
UNICEF director Catherine Russell says each week brings “new horrors in the Gaza Strip” as attacks on school shelters and sites for displaced people kill hundreds of Palestinians – many of them women and children.
Children injured in the earlier part of Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory are being injured again, Russell said, while the poliovirus joins the latest dangers faced by Gaza’s war-weary population.
“As families are repeatedly forced to move to escape the immediate violence, the humanitarian situation is beyond catastrophic,” Russell said in a statement.
“At least 278 aid workers in the Gaza Strip have already been killed – a record number – while others are put in harm’s way, or prevented from doing their jobs,” she said, calling for an immediate ceasefire and the free flow of aid into the territory.
With each passing week, children and families face new horrors in Gaza.
It’s long past time for this crisis to end, for hostages to be returned to their families and for the children of Gaza to have a healthy and secure future.👇 https://t.co/p5BLOWP4T2
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) July 24, 2024
Palestinian boy, 13, dies from injuries after shot 5 times by Israeli forces
Defense for Children International said Saif Ziad Ali Omair was shot five times on July 11, allegedly while throwing stones at Israeli soldiers in the village of Meithalun, south of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces opened fire from inside an armoured vehicle, hitting the 13-year-old four times in the abdomen, hand, leg and pelvis. The boy was then shot again, in the chest, by an Israeli soldier who stepped out of the armoured car and shot the teenager as he lay, grievously injured, on the ground.
Saif succumbed to his wounds on July 23, the child rights group said.
Israeli soldiers and armed settlers have now killed 58 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank so far this year, and a total of 139 have been killed since October 7, the group said.
13-year-old Saif Ziad Ali Omar died yesterday after Israeli forces shot him in the abdomen, hand, leg and pelvis on July 11 in Maithaloun in the northern occupied West Bank. After Saif fell to the ground, an Israeli soldier shot him again in the chest. https://t.co/zqJtNWBEAM
— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) July 24, 2024
Hundreds of wounded Palestinians arrive at field hospitals daily: ICRC
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says its members, as well as those of the Red Crescent in the Gaza Strip, are trying to protect the families of its members while also providing medical aid in a “catastrophic situation”.
Mousa Krezem, a member of the organisation in the besieged enclave, said he has been displaced four times in Rafah in the south, where the Israeli military is advancing with a deadly ground invasion.
“I am currently living in a tent,” Krezem said.
The Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah, which has 60 beds, continues to provide medical care to about 200 people daily, the ICRC said.
Every day the catastrophic situation in #Gaza brings more pain, fear, and anxiety.
Tens of thousands killed.
Families displaced again, and again.
Hundreds of injured & wounded filling hospitals every day.
Our colleagues shared recently👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/WjF5rxfrUk
— ICRC (@ICRC) July 25, 2024
