SANA'A August 19. 2024 (Saba) - For the 11th consecutive month of the Zionist genocidal war on Gaza, which began on October 7th, the Zionist enemy continues to ravage childhood in Gaza with three dangerous and terrifying plagues: "killing, hunger and disease".
There is hardly any Zionist bombing of the Gaza Strip that does not include the assassination of Palestinian children, along with their families and relatives, in addition to the hard psychological and physical effects left for Gaza children to suffer, if not already killed by bombing.
According to official medical statistics, the number of child martyred by the Zionist-American aggression has risen to 16,456, in addition to thousands of wounded children. The latest official statistics from UNICEF indicate that more than 17,000 children in Gaza today are without families, and the numbers continue to rise rapidly with the number of martyrs exceeding 40,000.
Today, the children of Gaza are suffering from all the physical and psychological effects of losing their families, in addition to the terrifying experience they are going through in light of the repeated bombing and displacement. The crimes of the Zionist enemy did not stop there, as its control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt prevented the wounded from leaving to receive treatment abroad, which led to the exacerbation of the humanitarian crisis and the death of more than 1,000 children, adding further suffering to their ongoing tragedy.
Children in Gaza are not only facing killing and injury, but they are also suffering from the hell of fear and terror resulting from the intensive airstrikes, continuous displacement, and diseases that affect them as a result of the population crowding in displacement sites lacking the minimum necessities of life.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that: many children in the Gaza Strip are no longer able to sleep and live their childhood in peace due to the horror they saw in the Zionist war. The Fund expressed its fear for their future if the war continues.
Saleem Owais, UNICEF's media officer for the Middle East and North Africa, called on the international community to intervene to stop the war and restore the future of Gaza's children. "Children in Gaza are not living their childhood," he said.
"Skin diseases, respiratory infections, and diarrhea have become common among Gaza's children", the UN official added, as "it is very difficult for children to live in tents during a scorching summer when temperatures reach 35 degrees, and increase inside the tents by 5 to 10 degrees Celsius."
He continued, saying: "many children in Gaza cannot sleep because they are constantly thinking about the horror of what they have seen, and they feel fear due to the ongoing war."
The UN official reiterated that "there are many things that the international community must do for the children of Gaza."
Owais described what he saw in Gaza during his visit as being like "a scene from a movie," after it became clear to him that what the media reports about this part of the world "is only a small part of the reality," since "the depth of destruction, pain and displacement there is extremely enormous."
At the end of his statements, Owais said the situation that children in Gaza are living in is terrible and extremely terrifying. "We must give them back their future, this is our responsibility."
Director of the Government Media Office in Gaza, Ismail Al-Thawabtah, has said in a statement: The genocidal war against the citizens of the Strip is still ongoing, as more than 40,000 Palestinians have been martyred so far, including 16,456 children. 36 Palestinians have died due to lack of food in the Gaza Strip, including children, and there are ten thousand missing, 70 percent of whom are children and women."
Al-Thawabtah added that "about 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip live without both or one of their parents, some of whom with martyred parent(s), others have one or both of their parents arrested, and others still have both or one of their parents missing under rubble."
He added that: "In Gaza, there are more than 120,000 infants in need of milk and food, but these are not available due to the siege and the starvation policy practiced by the Zionist enemy army against everyone living in the Strip."
Al-Thawabtah called on the international community and international organizations to "stand up to their responsibility and provide a decent life for children, provide food and prevent their starvation."
Chief of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Rami Abdo, said that the Zionist enemy is committing genocide against children in the Gaza Strip. Children are an essential component of society, and therefore Israel targets them, does not pay the necessary care to implement international humanitarian law, and commits crimes against humanity and war crimes against children, he added.
In late July, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that children "are paying the highest price for the war in Gaza, amid displacement and fear of losing their childhood."
In light of the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said polio virus had been discovered in sewage water, after the infrastructure was damaged in the persistent Zionist aggression on Gaza.
The virus threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in the Gaza Strip, prompting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to warn against the spread of the epidemic, and to underline the need for an urgent and coordinated response to contain it.
International newspapers and magazines, as part of their coverage of the situation in the Gaza Strip and the region, have highlighted the position of the Zionist public opinion pressing for a deal to release prisoners and stop the war in the Gaza Strip, as well as the health risks threatening the region, as experts expressed their fears that the threat of polio would exceed Gaza and the Zionist entity.
On Thursday, UNICEF and the World Health Organization called for a seven-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to allow for the implementation of two rounds of "crucial" vaccination campaign against polio.
UNICEF said in a press release on Friday that the two rounds are expected to be launched at the end of August and September throughout Gaza "to prevent the spread of the polio virus. We hope that more than 640,000 children under the age of ten will be able to receive the vaccines."
UNICEF added: "The seven-day cessation of hostilities will allow children and families to safely access health facilities, and will allow community outreach workers to reach children who cannot reach health facilities to receive polio vaccinations.. Without humanitarian pauses, the campaign will not be possible."
UNICEF explained that "the polio virus was discovered in July 2024 in environmental samples from Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.. The Gaza Strip has been free of polio for the past 25 years, and its re-emergence represents another threat to children in the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries... A ceasefire is the only way to ensure public health security in the Gaza Strip and the region."
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on the "X" that "Ultimately, the best vaccine for all children in Gaza is peace."
In the Swiss city of Geneva, demonstrators chanted slogans in solidarity with Palestine, while placing children's shoes on the ground as a symbol for the martyred children of Gaza.
They demanded an end to Israel's killing of children in the Gaza Strip, and denounced the attacks on the Strip.
The lenses of journalists and activists capture images of martyred and injured children in front of hospital reception departments and under rubble of destroyed homes, covered in blood or cut into small pieces.
Views tear the hearts of those who see them.
The Israeli army does not care about killing children, but rather continues its attacks on all areas of the Gaza Strip, ignoring all international laws and norms.
The children of Gaza live in tragic conditions, lacking the most basic necessities of life and living without shelter due to repeated displacements, in addition to a severe shortage of medicines, food and drinking water, which exposes them to serious health risks.
It is worth mentioning that with American and European support, the Zionist enemy has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, which has left more than 140,000 Palestinians killed or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than ten thousand missing, amidst massive destruction and deadly famine.
In disregard of the international community, the Zionist entity continues its war of extermination, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution to stop it immediately, and the orders of the International Court of Justice to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and to improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.
K.N
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