Thousands of Palestinian children were killed during Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, a UN official said on Wednesday, calling Gaza the "most dangerous place in the world to be a child."
"More than 5,300 Palestinian children have been reportedly killed in just 46 days ... or over 115 a day, every day, for weeks and weeks. Based on these figures, children account for 40% of the deaths in Gaza. This is unprecedented.
"In other words, the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child," UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Catherine Russell said at the UN Security Council briefing on the protection of children in Gaza.
Russell said Gaza's children are at "extreme risk" from catastrophic living conditions in addition to bombs, rockets, and gunfire.
"The effects of the violence perpetrated on children have been catastrophic, indiscriminate, and disproportionate," she said, stressing that humanitarian pauses are "simply not enough."
"UNICEF is calling for an urgent humanitarian cease-fire to immediately put a stop to this carnage.
"We are concerned that further military escalation in the south of Gaza would exponentially worsen the humanitarian situation there ... causing additional displacement ... and squeezing the civilian population into an even smaller area. Attacks on the South must be avoided," she added.
Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.
Authorities in Gaza said Tuesday that the death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the besieged enclave since then has risen past 14,100 people, including over 5,800 children and 3,900 women. The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is around 1,200, according to official figures.
