UNICEF Condemns Israeli Strikes on Civilians as Over 50 Children Killed in N Gaza

IQNA – More than 50 children were killed over a weekend marked by intense Israeli attacks in northern Gaza, placing humanitarian workers and civilians at increasing risk, according to the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

“This has already been a deadly weekend of attacks in north Gaza,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement on Saturday. “In the past 48 hours alone, over 50 children have reportedly been killed in Jabalia, where strikes leveled two residential buildings sheltering hundreds of people.”

Amid ongoing hostilities, UNICEF reported an incident in which a staff member's vehicle, involved in a polio vaccination campaign, came under fire in Jabalia al-Nazla.

A quadcopter reportedly fired on the car, causing damage, though the staff member was unharmed but left “deeply shaken,” Anadolu Agency reported on Monday. 

Additionally, another strike injured three children near a vaccination clinic in Sheikh Radwan, where the polio campaign continued. Russell noted these incidents reflect the severe risks faced by civilians in Gaza and highlighted them as part of “one of the darkest periods of this terrible war.”

“These attacks on Jabalia, the vaccination clinic, and the UNICEF staff member are yet further examples of the grave consequences of indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip,” she stated.

Russell underscored that international humanitarian law mandates the protection of civilians and civilian structures, including humanitarian workers and residential areas.

She also emphasized that displacement or evacuation orders do not permit any party in the conflict to treat all individuals or objects within an area as military targets. The failure to uphold these protections, Russell said, has resulted in “tens of thousands of children killed, injured, and deprived of essential services needed for survival.”

“It is beyond time to end this war,” she said, urging global efforts to safeguard civilians and humanitarian workers alike.

The Israeli regime forces have been pounding the besieged Gaza Strip since October last year, after Palestinian resistance groups launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in response to decades of Israeli crimes and violence.

The Israeli aggression has killed more than 43,340 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children. The indiscriminate attacks have also internally displaced almost all of the 2.3 million population.

Source: Agencies