2023-12-29 05:01:00
The toll of Palestinians killed as a result of the Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip rose to more than 21,300, as reported by Gazan authorities on Thursday. Meanwhile, Unicef reported that at least 124 Palestinian children and six Israeli children have been murdered so far this year in the West Bank and Jerusalem. This unprecedented figure makes 2023 the deadliest year for children in these regions, where violence intensified due to the outbreak of war between Israel and the Islamist group.
Seven Palestinian civilians, mostly children and women, were killed in an Israeli bombardment targeting the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to local sources. The number of injured has not been determined so far. Israeli planes also launched several raids on the center of the city of Khan Younis and on farmland north of the city of Rafah, south of the Strip, according to the Palestinian agency WAFA.
According to the latest report from the Gaza health ministry, the total number of dead rose to 21,320 – among them around 9,000 children – and 55,603 injured, in the framework of Israel’s bombing campaign against the Strip, in retaliation. for the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7 that killed around 1,200 people and took 240 hostages, including twenty Argentines.
The situation in the West Bank
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that this year was the deadliest for children in the West Bank and Jerusalem, with 124 Palestinians killed and six Israelis. “In the last 12 weeks, 83 children were killed, more than double the number of children killed in all of 2022, amid an increase in Israeli military and police operations,” it said in a statement. UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khodr.
More than 576 minors were injured and some others were reported detained, Khodr said, before adding that the West Bank was severely affected by restrictions on access and movement, after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas almost three months ago.
“As the world watches in horror at the situation in the Gaza Strip, children in the West Bank are living their own nightmare. Living with an almost constant feeling of fear and pain is, sadly, all too common for affected children,” he said. the director. “Many say that fear has become part of their daily lives, and that they are afraid to even walk to school or play outdoors, due to the threat of gunshots and other violence related to the conflict,” he lamented. , reflecting Unicef’s concern about the situation regarding children’s right to safety and protection.
The report dedicated only to children coincides with another document also made public this Thursday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, who warned of the rapid deterioration of the human rights situation in the West Bank and Jerusalem after the start of the war.
Specifically, since October in the West Bank there have been at least 300 deaths – 291 at the hands of the Israeli Security Forces and the rest murdered by Israeli civilians – in addition to an increase in illegal arrests and mistreatment of detainees. In this sense, the organization called on Israel to immediately end the use of weapons and military means during security operations, to cease arbitrary detentions of Palestinians and to withdraw discriminatory movement restrictions.
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