Geneva, SANA – \u201cThe Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. And day after day, that brutal reality is reinforced,\u201d today said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder during a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past 48 hours, the largest remaining fully functioning hospital was shelled, twice. That hospital \u2013 Al Nasser in Khan Yunis \u2013 not only shelters large numbers of children who had already been badly injured in attacks on their homes, but hundreds of women and children seeking safety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Elder explained that the \u201csafe zones\u201d are tiny patches of barren land, or street corners, or half-built buildings, with no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold and the rain, and no sanitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so without water and sanitation, nor shelter, these so-called safe zones have become zones of disease. Diarrhea cases in children are above 100,000. Acute respiratory illness cases in civilians are above 150,000. Both numbers will be gross undercounts of the woeful reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout sufficient safe water, food and sanitation that only a humanitarian ceasefire can bring – child deaths due to disease could surpass those killed in bombardments,\u201d said the UNICEF spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents are painfully aware that hospitals are not an option for their sick child \u2013 both because hospitals are getting hit, and because hospitals are overwhelmed with children and citizens with the ghastly wounds of war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we speak, the delivery of aid is a matter of life or death for children in Gaza and the conditions to provide that aid are not being met. An immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to end the killing and injuring of children, and child deaths from disease, and enable the urgent delivery of desperately needed lifesaving aid,\u201d stressed the UNICEF spokesperson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Geneva, SANA – \u201cThe Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. And day after day, that brutal reality is reinforced,\u201d today said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder during a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. \u201cOver the past 48 hours, the largest remaining fully functioning hospital …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":322264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6987,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-arabic-international","category-latest-news","category-news-not-sorted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322263"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322267,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322263\/revisions\/322267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/322264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}