Children are being killed or injured at a rate of more than 400 a day in Israel's ongoing siege of Gaza, the United Nations children's agency said Wednesday, as it reiterated calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Some 3,500 children have reportedly been killed and more than 6,800 children reportedly injured during 25 days of “ongoing bombardment” since October 7, UNICEF said in a statement that added: “This cannot become the new normal.”
“Children have endured too much already. The killing and captivity of children must stop. Children are not a target,” said the statement, which was released following the second consecutive day of deadly Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
“The scenes of carnage coming out of Jabaliya camp in the Gaza Strip following attacks yesterday and again today are horrific and appalling,” UNICEF said.
The UN agency said it does not yet have estimates of the death toll of children from the camp. Medical officials on the ground told CNN hundreds were injured and killed, including many children, following the airstrikes.
The Israeli military said it targeted and killed several Hamas militants in the camp and maintains it does everything it can to minimize civilian casualties.
Hamas on Tuesday strongly denied the presence of one of its commanders at the camp.
UNICEF said that refugee camps are protected under international law and “parties to conflict” have obligations to respect and protect civilians from attack.
“UNICEF reiterates its urgent call to all parties to the conflict for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, to ensure the protection of all children, and for safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to deliver lifesaving aid at scale across the Gaza Strip, according to International Humanitarian Law,” the statement said.
A senior Hamas official said in an interview aired last week that the October 7 attack against Israel was just the beginning, vowing to launch a second, a third, a fourth attack until the country is ‘annihilated’.
Ghazi Hamad – whose comments were transcribed by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington-based think tank – added in the LBC interview that "Israel has no place on our land. We must remove the country because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe."
As for the October 7 attacks – which left more than 1,300 Israelis in the south slaughtered and hundreds dragged into the Gaza Strip – Hamad declared that "we must teach Israel a lesson, and we will do this again and again.”
Jabalya refugee camp
Israel bombed the densely-populated Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza for the second time in two days Wednesday.
The air strike prompted warnings of war crimes as more nations took diplomatic measures and condemned Israel’s offensive in the besieged enclave.
Hours later, one of the few remaining hospitals serving the northern part of the coastal enclave announced its main generator had gone out of service, deepening fears for patients in intensive care.
The massive second strike on Jabalya created further catastrophic damage, destroying several buildings in the Falluja neighborhood of the camp, with video from the site showing a deep crater and people digging through the rubble searching for bodies.
What happened in last 24 hours in Gaza strip?
The Civil Defense in Hamas-run Gaza described the airstrike on the camp as a “second massacre.”
The strike killed at least 80 people and injured hundreds more, according to Dr. Atef Al Kahlout, the director of Gaza’s Indonesian hospital.
More bodies were being dug out of the rubble, and the majority of casualties were women and children, he told CNN.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the Wednesday attack targeted a Hamas command and control complex and eliminated Hamas terrorists based on precise intelligence.
The strike came a day after Israeli jets hit the camp Tuesday, killing hundreds of people according to medics.
Generator down
The main generator for the Gaza Indonesian Hospital went out of service Wednesday night.
Scores of people injured in the Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalya camp are being treated at the hospital, which is considered a backbone in providing health services in northern Gaza.
War crimes warning
The UN Human Rights Office has said the attacks on Jabalya, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, could amount to war crimes given the high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction, it wrote on social media.
At least 8,700 people were killed, according to figures released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah.
Diplomatic response
Jordan became the latest country to recall its ambassador to Israel after Latin American countries including Bolivia cutting off ties with Israel and Chile and Columbia also recalling their envoys from Tel Aviv over the humanitarian crisis in besieged Gaza strip.
Unprecedented tragedy
The scale of the tragedy for the more than 2 million people, half of them children, trapped inside war-torn Gaza, is “unprecedented,” the head of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency said following a trip to the enclave.
“Everyone was just asking for water and food. Instead of being at school, learning, children were asking for a sip of water and a piece of bread. It was heart wrenching,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, as he renewed calls for a ceasefire.
First departures
Injured Palestinians and hundreds of foreign nationals started crossing from Gaza into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing.
They include over tan 360 foreign passport holders, many of them Palestinian dual nationals while 45 injured Palestinians are also receiving treatment in Egypt.
