Experts raise alarm over triple threat in Gaza, over 10 children losing legs every day
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Salma Hossein
- . January 8, 2024
- . Update: January 8, 2024 7:39 pm
Save the Children has highlighted the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza following more than three months of Israeli bombardment, stating more than 10 children on average have lost one or both of their legs every day since October 7.
Several amputation operations didn’t involve anaesthesia, given the severe shortages in medical supplies and basic goods in the Palestinian enclave, the charity added. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday at least 22,835 Palestinians have been killed.
The “pain … is too much for even experienced professionals”
Save the Children referenced remarks from UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who said on December 19 that around 1,000 children had lost one or both of their legs. The charity’s director for the occupied Palestinian territory called the suffering of children “unimaginable”.
Jason Lee noted: The killing and maiming of children is condemned as a grave violation against children, and perpetrators must be held to account.” “The impact of seeing children in that much pain … is too much for even experienced professionals.”
Children are nearly seven times more likely to die from blast injuries than adults as they are more susceptible and sensitive to injuries, according to the charity. Lee stressed the need for a “definitive ceasefire” to allow the flow of humanitarian aid and medicines.
The majority of Gaza’s more than 2 million population has been forcibly displaced. But the Israel Defence Forces has repeatedly said it is not targeting civilians and that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as shields for its attacks on Israel.
Meanwhile, the UN’s children’s agency has raised serious concerns over a triple threat to children in Gaza. The young ones in the besieged territory are not just at risk of raging conflict, but also of malnutrition and disease.
“Gaza has simply become uninhabitable”
Compared to before the war, cases of diarrhea in children under age 5 have increased roughly 2,000%, according to UNICEF. Martin Griffiths, the UN’s top emergency relief official, said Friday a public health disaster is unfolding as sewers spill over and diseases spread in shelters.
“Gaza has simply become uninhabitable,” he noted in the report, released by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – adding around 180 Palestinian women in the enclave “are giving birth daily amidst this chaos.”
