UN: Children bear brunt of "unspeakable conditions" in Gaza

NEW YORK, July 16 (KUNA) -- Conditions in Gaza Strip have reached an unspeakable level of devastation with children paying the highest price, top UN officials said in briefings to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
Tom Fletcher - the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Catherine Russell - the Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned of soaring child deaths, starvation and a shattered health system amid continuing bombardment and displacement.
Fletcher said there was no "vocabulary" left to adequately describe conditions on the ground.
"Food is running out. Those seeking it risk being shot. People are dying trying to feed their families. Field hospitals receive dead bodies, and medical workers hear stories firsthand from the injured - day after day after day," he said.
Starvation rates among children reached their highest levels in June, with more than 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed as acutely malnourished.
"Last week, amid this hunger crisis, children and women were killed in a strike while waiting for the food supplements to keep them alive," he pointed out.
Gaza's health system "is shattered," Fletcher reported - only 17 of 36 hospitals and 63 of 170 primary health centres are even partially functioning; shortages mean up to five babies share one incubator.
Seventy percent of essential medicines are out of stock, half of all medical equipment is damaged, pregnant women are giving birth without care, women and girls manage their periods without basic supplies.
Meanwhile, water production capacity has plummeted leaving the entire enclave (95 percent) facing water insecurity.
On her part, Russell told ambassadors that an average of 28 children are killed in Gaza every day - "the equivalent of an entire classroom." Over the past 21 months, more than 17,000 children have been killed and 33,000 injured across Gaza, she regretted.
Many of those children, she said, were struck "as they line up for lifesaving humanitarian aid - further proof that there is no safe place for civilians anywhere in Gaza." "Children are not political actors. They do not start conflicts, and they are powerless to stop them. But they suffer greatly, and they wonder why the world has failed them.
"And make no mistake, we have failed them," she went on.
"With clean water increasingly difficult to access, children have little choice but to drink contaminated water," Russell said, noting that this is increasing the risk of disease outbreaks. (end) ast.gb