Risk of famine, illness, death for Gaza children growing each day: UNICEF

Iran Press TV

Sunday, 18 May 2025 10:38 PM

UNICEF, originally the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, has issued a new warning about conditions of Palestinian children in Gaza, amid the ongoing Israeli blockade of the territory.

UNICEF said on Sunday conditions in Gaza have drastically worsened under Israel’s crippling siege in the past two months.

The agency noted that children are enduring the regime’s relentless airstrikes while being deprived of essential goods, services, and life-saving care.

It called for an immediate ceasefire and the urgent entry of humanitarian aid into the territory.

In separate posts on Sunday, UN agencies decried the daily sufferings and deaths of children in Gaza, buried under relentless airstrikes compounded by the Israeli regime forces’ ongoing blockade of emergency aid, including food and medicine, to the besieged Palestinian territory.

“Children in the Gaza are facing relentless bombardments while being deprived of essential goods, services and lifesaving care since the beginning of the conflict.

“For the past two months, the situation has further deteriorated, due to the imposed blockade of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“Aid MUST enter Gaza now. The ceasefire MUST be reinstated NOW,” UNICEF emphasized in a posting on X, formerly Twitter.

The WFP raised the alarm that the threat of famine in Gaza is real. It called on the international community to find a means to get food past the Israeli blockade as soon as possible.

“We call on the international community to act urgently to get aid flowing again.

“If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for too many,” it emphasized.

The Israeli regime forces launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza on October 7, 2023, killing 53,272 mostly women and children and injuring another 120,673.

In the past days, the Israeli military announced that it intended to intensify its attacks on Gaza, using its newly recruited fresh reserve troops to expand its occupation area and force the dislocated Palestinians to new places.