The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated that about 20,000 babies were born into hell” in the Gaza Strip, since the Israeli extermination war on Gaza started on October 7, 2023.
In a press conference in Geneva, UNICEF spokeswoman Tess Ingram stated that it is likely that many other children will die as a result of the increasingly harsh conditions in the Strip.
She confirmed that the prohibition of entry of aid has led to C-sections operations being performed without anesthesia, while other women were unable to deliver their babies who died in the womb due to excessive pressure on the medical staff.
Ingram added that during the 105 days of the aggression on the Gaza Strip, nearly 20,000 babies were born in a war environment.
“Every 10 minutes, a baby is born in that horrible war”, she added.
She stressed that the situation of pregnant women and newborns in the Gaza Strip is “very disturbing,” stressing that urgent and intensive measures to rescue them must be taken.
She also said that many pregnant women, nursing mothers, and babies live in “inhumane” conditions, including temporary shelters, with poor nutrition and unsafe water.
Because of this, as she warned, “about 135,000 children under the age of two are at risk of serious malnutrition.”
Ingram, who had just returned from southern Gaza, explained that workers at the overcrowded Emirati Hospital in Rafah were forced to remove mothers from the hospital within three hours after the C-section was performed, a situation that beyond imagination and requires immediate action.
She said that the ongoing bombing and displacement directly affects newborn children, leading to high rates of malnutrition, growth problems, and other health complications.
The UN official added that about 135,000 children under the age of two are currently at risk of acute malnutrition, amid “inhumane” conditions in temporary shelters, malnutrition, and unsafe water.
Since October 7, 2023, the IOF has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, resulting in catastrophic humanitarian and health conditions, due to the continuous bombing and the prevention of supplies of food, water, medicine, and electricity.
The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and human rights, as it exposes the lives and property of civilians to extreme danger, which requires urgent intervention from the international community to stop the aggression and protect civilians in the Gaza Strip.
This international community must force the IOF to adhere to international laws and treaties on human rights and international humanitarian law. They must be obliged to protect the rights and lives of civilians, prohibit their targeting and preserve their safety, and punish the leaders responsible for committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.
