Statement by UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Edouard Beigbeder, on the killing of children in Nuseirat and Al Mawasi, Gaza

AMMAN, 6 December 2024 – “In a single day of bloodshed, children in different parts of the Gaza strip were reportedly killed while sheltering inside their tents or desperately queueing for a piece of bread amid a rapidly worsening food crisis.

”On Wednesday, an airstrike in Nuseirat Camp, central Gaza, reportedly claimed the lives of four children near a local food distribution point. They were amongst civilians lining up for a meal until bombs started falling from the sky. Three boys and a girl aged 5 to 11.

“Similarly, an airstrike reportedly hit 40 tents that evening in Al Mawasi, a unilaterally designated “humanitarian zone,” causing massive explosion and fires. At least 22 people were reportedly killed, including eight children, with dozens more injured. Their piercing screams, engulfed in flames as they run for their lives, will haunt humanity's conscience for generations to come. At least 43,000 people have reportedly been killed according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. 

“This grim week was preceded by the horrific events of last week, when two children and a woman were reportedly crushed to death while waiting in line outside a bakery in central Gaza. Hungry children swept up by despair. 

“Day after day, week after week for nearly 14 months now, Gaza has been nothing short of hell on Earth. No child should have to endure such atrocities and carnage, and no parent should have to bury their child. Every corner of Gaza has become a graveyard for children.

“The overall humanitarian response in Gaza is teetering toward full collapse. The lives of virtually all children are at risk or have been shattered by unimaginable trauma, loss, and deprivation. Their safety and access to essential humanitarian aid is not being facilitated as explicitly demanded by international law.

We call on the parties to the conflict to facilitate the delivery of much-needed aid by humanitarian actors into and throughout Gaza, and to take all necessary measures to ensure they always receive the required protection, in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law.

“With at least 50,000 children affected by acute malnutrition in Gaza - and hundreds of thousands displaced multiple times - no child queuing for a piece of bread or sheltering in a temporary tent should be trampled to death or killed by an airstrike. The ongoing normalization of such horror needs to turn into action to stop it. Enough is enough.”