New York, SANA – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that nearly half a million children in the Gaza Strip—who have endured violence and psychological trauma for more than 700 days of ongoing Israeli aggression—are being forced to flee “from one hell to another.”
According to the UN News Center, UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram, speaking from southern Gaza, said: “The mass forced displacement of families poses a deadly threat to the most vulnerable, as intensified Israeli bombardment continues.” She explained that “Palestinian families are pushing their hungry children southward, from one hell to another.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that in recent days nearly 70,000 new displacements toward the south were recorded, with some 150,000 people displaced over the past month.
Ingram described the destinations of the displaced as “a sea of makeshift tents and human despair, where available services fall far short of meeting the needs of hundreds of thousands of residents.”
She also warned of the worsening malnutrition crisis among children in Gaza, noting that around 26,000 children currently require treatment for severe acute malnutrition, including more than 10,000 in Gaza City alone, where famine was officially declared late last month.
She added: “Families in Gaza have no real choice. Many now realize there is no safe place left to go.”
Nawal/ Manar Salameh
