A spokesman for the UN’s child relief agency, UNICEF, said on Tuesday that Israeli forces have killed at least 100 children in Gaza since the start of the US-backed ceasefire, which the IDF has constantly violated.
“More than 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire of early October. That is roughly one girl or boy killed every day. During a ceasefire,” said UNICEF spokesman James Elder.
“UNICEF has recorded reports of at least 60 boys and 40 girls killed in the Gaza Strip. The 100 figure only reflects incidents where sufficient details have been available to record, so the actual number of Palestinian children killed is expected to be higher. Hundreds of children have been wounded,” Elder added.
He said that children have been killed by “airstrikes, drone strikes, including suicide drones … They’re killed from tank shelling, they’re killed from live ammunition, they’re killed from [remote-controlled] quadcopters.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday that since the “ceasefire” went into effect on October 10, the IDF has killed at least 447 Palestinians and wounded 1,246. The ministry said that a total of five Palestinians were killed over the previous 24-hour period.
Elder pointed out that other children have died due to the cold weather as families are living in flimsy tents and the rubble of bombed-out buildings amid continued Israeli restrictions.
“We’ve now gone to six children who died of hypothermia just this winter,” he said. “I wish I could take a camera and show you 30, 40-kilometre [per hour] winds ripping through tents on the beach. It’s bitterly cold, it’s bitterly wet.”
Elder said that the humanitarian situation in Gaza has improved in some areas since the ceasefire deal was signed, but noted continued Israeli restrictions, including on medical evacuations. He called for the ceasefire to be enforced and the lifting of all Israeli restrictions.
“A ceasefire that slows the bombs is progress — but one that still buries children is not enough. It is a warning, and it demands enforcement, humanitarian access, and accountability,” Elder said. “This is the time to turn reduced violence into real safety: open access for aid, massively increase medical evacuation, and make this the moment when the killing of children in Gaza truly ends.”
