DaysofPal—The United Nations has issued a stark warning as Israeli airstrikes continue to devastate Gaza, with at least 100 children being killed or injured each day since the genocide resumed on March 18.
The renewed military campaign follows the collapse of a fragile ceasefire and has once again plunged Palestinian civilians, especially children, into a harrowing cycle of violence.
Children were among the victims of Israel’s overnight attacks on residential homes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, adding to the mounting toll on the enclave’s youngest residents.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) expressed deep alarm at the growing humanitarian crisis.
“Nothing justifies the killing of children,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, in a post on social media platform X on Saturday.
“Gaza is being turned into a no-land for children,” he added, lamenting that “young lives are being cut short in a war not of children’s making.”
“This is a stain on our common humanity,” Lazzarini stressed.
Since March 18, at least 322 children have been reported killed, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The brief two-month ceasefire that began on January 19 had offered “a desperately needed lifeline for Gaza’s children and hope for a path to recovery,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said on Monday.
“But children have again been plunged into a cycle of deadly violence and deprivation.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Education echoed these concerns, stating that more than 17,000 children have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive in October 2023. “The figure reflects the depth of the tragedy children are enduring, with each number representing a life, memories, and experiences lost,” the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
In the occupied West Bank, children have also faced severe repression. According to a joint report from the Palestinian Commission for Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Israel has detained 1,200 Palestinian minors since October 7, 2023. These children are allegedly subjected to “torture, starvation, medical neglect, and systematic deprivation daily.”
Tragically, these conditions led to the recent death of 17-year-old Walid Ahmad from Silwad, who died in Megiddo Prison in northern Israel. He is the first child prisoner reported dead since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
Currently, over 9,500 Palestinians, including women and more than 350 children, are detained in Israeli prisons under what human rights groups describe as harsh and inhumane conditions.
The humanitarian fallout from the ongoing war is worsening. UNRWA reports that between March 18 and March 23, more than 142,000 Palestinians were newly displaced.
In a statement marking Palestine Children’s Day, the agency said, “Since the war in Gaza started, around 1.9 million people, including thousands of children, have gone through repeated forced displacement amid bombardment, fear, and loss.”
Since the war began in October 2023, Israel has killed over 50,600 Palestinians in Gaza, the vast majority of whom are women and children.
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