Israeli occupation forces kill an average of four children every hour in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday, the six-month anniversary of the launch of Israel’s genocidal onslaught.
More than 14,350 children have been killed, constituting 44 per cent of the total number of deaths (over 33,000) in Gaza.
Additionally, women and children constitute 70 per cent of the missing persons in Gaza as a result of the Israeli aggression, totalling 7,000 individuals, while 43,349 children live in Gaza without one or both of their parents.
In a related context, James Elder, spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that more than 600,000 children in Rafah, south of Gaza, are suffering from hunger and fear, and are facing the risk of an Israeli attack.
‘Rafah is a city for children. There are 600,000 boys and girls, yet they are under threat of military assault, trapped in Rafah, with no safe place to go,’ Elder stated.
UNICEF has published a video of its spokesman talking about the suffering of children trying to survive in Rafah under Israeli attacks, after 1.5 million displaced people were told by the Israeli army to go there.
Elder pointed out that Palestinian parents try every day to give hope to their children despite fear and hunger, stressing that the word ‘hope’ is at risk of being deleted from the dictionary in Gaza.
He called on ‘everyone who feels the pain and fear of Gazan parents towards their children and everyone who believes in childhood to stop this suffering in Rafah’.
- The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) issued a warning on Saturday that the rapid deterioration of the food security situation in the Gaza Strip has reached a critical stage, with indications of an imminent famine.
- The Australian government is to appoint a ‘special adviser’ to work with Israel to ensure ‘transparency’ in an investigation into the air attack that killed seven international aid workers last Monday.
Penny Wong, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, told reporters yesterday that information about the attack provided so far by Israel was not sufficient and that the Australian government wants its own ‘suitably qualified person’ to monitor the investigation.
‘The government will appoint a special adviser who we have requested the Israelis work with so we can be advised about the appropriateness of the process,’ Wong said.
‘We want to have full confidence in the transparency and accountability of any investigation.’
The seven aid workers killed included 43-year-old Australian national Lalzawmi ‘Zomi’ Frankcom, as well as three British, a Palestinian, a Polish and a US-Canadian employee.
