UNICEF aims to return all 650,000 school-age children in Gaza to school
Edouard Beigbeder, the director for the Middle East and North Africa region at UNICEF, says the global children’s agency is scaling up its humanitarian operations in Gaza following the ceasefire.
“We are racing against the clock to save children’s lives from preventable threats, like malnutrition, disease and the winter cold,” he said in a statement.
UNICEF is also working with partner groups in Gaza to return all 650,000 school-age children in the territory to school, he said.
“After two lost years, families know that a return to proper education will provide a foundation for learning, healing, hope, and long-term social cohesion in their communities,” Beigbeder said.
“UNICEF is assembling semi-permanent classrooms and repairing damaged schools as we prepare to rebuild inclusive schools that combine multiple services under one roof – from safe drinking water to integrated mental health and psychosocial support and child protection services to promote emotional recovery and safety, for every child,” he added.
Nearly half a million Palestinians return to northern Gaza: UN
About 473,000 people have made their way back to northern Gaza since the October 10 ceasefire, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.
Those returning are confronting widespread destruction of their property and critical shortages of drinking water, food and basic amenities, according to the UN. Numerous Palestinians are now sheltering in destroyed homes surrounded by unexploded bombs.
Vast swaths of the coastal territory have been reduced to a wasteland by Israel’s war on the enclave, which has killed more than 68,500 Palestinians. Rights groups and a UN commission of inquiry have accused Israel of committing genocide in the war. Israel has denied the allegations.
Displaced Palestinians returning home face threat from unexploded ordnance, says doctor
An emergency doctor at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital says her team is treating a growing number of Palestinians who have been injured by unexploded ordnance when they return to their homes following their displacement by the war.
“As people come back to the north after the heavy bombardment … they’re moving into their old homes, they’re setting up tents in the rubble, and there are so many unexploded missiles,” said the doctor, who gave her name as Harriet.
She said children were among those being injured by the ordnance left scattered across the territory, adding her team had recently treated siblings aged five and seven who had sustained blast and shrapnel injuries from a bomb.
About 66,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance remain lying around Gaza, and at least 53 people have been killed by the bombs so far.
A drone view shows widespread destruction caused by Israel’s war on Gaza in a residential neighbourhood of Gaza City
Unexploded ordnance in Gaza
- Israel’s bombardment of Gaza may have eased for now, but aid groups say its people are facing severe danger from unexploded ordnance.
- The United Nations has warned that clearing it from the Strip could take up to 30 years.
- More than 200,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped on Gaza in two years of relentless Israeli attacks.
- About a third of those bombs failed to detonate. That’s about 66,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance scattered across the territory.
- At least 53 people have been killed and hundreds injured by the explosives left behind.
Failure rate is more around 10%, a third seems excessively high, yet that's still 20,000 tons on unexploded bombs.
