At least 67 Palestinian children have been killed in the Gaza Strip since a United States-brokered ceasefire took effect last month, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday, highlighting what it called a “staggering” pattern of deadly violence despite an agreement meant to halt fighting.
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said the toll includes a baby girl killed in an Israeli air strike on a home in Khan Younis on Thursday, as well as seven children killed the previous day amid a wave of Israeli attacks across the enclave.
“This is during an agreed ceasefire. The pattern is staggering,” Pires told reporters, stressing that the deaths have occurred since October 11, the first full day of the truce between Israel and Hamas. “As we have repeated many times, these are not statistics: Each was a child with a family, a dream, a life – suddenly cut short by continued violence.”
Children have suffered disproportionately throughout the nearly two-year war. UNICEF estimated last month that 64,000 Palestinian children have been killed or injured in Israeli attacks since the conflict began in October 2023.
Humanitarian groups say the physical and psychological toll on Gaza’s youth has reached unprecedented levels. Save the Children reported this week that an average of 475 children in Gaza suffered lifelong disabilities each month in 2024, including traumatic brain injuries, burns and other life-altering wounds.
The group added that Gaza has now become “home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history.”
Meanwhile, Israel continues to face accusations of using starvation as a weapon of war, charges it denies, as severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine fuel a deepening humanitarian catastrophe.
Several children have died from hunger-related causes in recent months, aid agencies warn, with the blockade and ongoing military operations sharply limiting the flow of relief into the territory.
UNICEF reiterated its call for full protection of children and for all parties to uphold their commitments under the ceasefire, stressing that the killing of children under truce conditions “cannot become normalized.”
Source: AL JAZEERA
Written By Rodney Mbua
