UNICEF says Gaza world's 'most dangerous place' for children

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 22: The head of the United Nations children's agency on Wednesday called the besieged Gaza Strip "the most dangerous place in the world to be a child," and said that the hard-won truce deal between Israel and Hamas was not enough to save their lives.

UNICEF's executive director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council that over 5,300 children have reportedly been killed in Gaza since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, accounting for 40 percent of the deaths.

"This is unprecedented," said Russell, who had just returned from a trip to southern Gaza. "I am haunted by what I saw and heard."

Russell welcomed a deal reached Wednesday by Israel and Hamas to free hostages and pause ferocious fighting and bombardment in Gaza.

Some 240 people -- ranging from infants to the elderly -- were taken captive during the October 7 attack by Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 in Israel, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

But Russell said that a pause is not enough and called for "an urgent humanitarian ceasefire to immediately put a stop to this carnage."

"For children to survive..., for humanitarian workers to stay and effectively deliver..., humanitarian pauses are simply not enough," she said.

Russell said that an additional 1,200 children are believed to remain under the rubble of bombed-out buildings or are otherwise unaccounted for.

"In addition to bombs, rockets, and gunfire, Gaza's children are at extreme risk from catastrophic living conditions," Russell added.

"One million children -- or all children inside the territory -- are now food insecure, facing what could soon become a catastrophic nutrition crisis."

UNICEF estimates that acute malnutrition in children could increase by nearly 30 per cent in Gaza over the next months.

Also addressing the Security Council, the head of the United Nations Population Fund, Natalia Kanem, drew attention to the plight of Gaza's pregnant women, with some 5,500 expected to deliver babies under appalling conditions in the coming month.

"At a moment when new life is beginning, what should be a moment of joy is overshadowed by death and destruction, horror and fear," said Kanem.

Israel slams UNSC for not condemning 'jihadist Nazi' Hamas, calls out 'barbarity, savagery'

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11: Gilad Erdan, Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has slammed the UN Security Council for failing to condemn Hamas for the October 7 terror attack.

Drawing a parallel between the attack and the anti-semitic Kristallnacht Holocaust of 1938, he said if the council could see the “barbarity and savagery with your own eyes”, it would understand the "evil" Israel has been defending itself against.

"The holy Jewish Sabbath is a day of peace and rest. It is the day on which God rested following the creation of the world yet no Jew will ever forget the Sabbath of October 7th. It has been seared into the collective trauma of the Jewish people forever.

Exactly 85 years ago, today, another traumatic atrocity was burned into the Jewish people's history. Between November 9th and 10th 1938, the Jewish communities of Germany and Austria suffered Kristallnacht, the Nazis November pogrom which was the first hyper violent exposure of the Nazis murderous Jew hatred," Erdan said at the UNSC meeting.

He said had the Council existed in 1938, its response to the pogrom wouldn't have been different.

"Nearly 100 Jews were murdered, thousands of Jewish homes, hospitals, schools, houses of worship and businesses were ransacked and burned to the ground. Israelis endured another such pogram five weeks ago, yet here, we are 34 days later and this Council still has not condemned Hamas's heinous planned Massacre of Israeli civilians. Had this Council in its current form existed in 1938, I doubt that the response would be much different," he added.

He asked the council to invite him to share a screening of the footage from Hamas's attack on October 7. He claimed the footage was captured by Hamas terrorists themselves.

"Once you see the barbarity and savagery with your own eyes you will understand the evil that Israel is defending itself against," he added.

He also claimed that over the past 16 years, Hamas has turned Gaza into a terror trap.

"Over the past 16 years, Hamas has turned every inch of Gaza into a terror trap. Nothing is sacred to these jihadist Nazis. Every medical worker, doctor and patient in Gaza is a human shield for the Hamas terrorist. It is a war crime of epic proportions. Will this be the focus of today's meeting? How can we possibly hold a briefing on the medical situation in Gaza without making this the primary issue of this meeting," Erdan said.

He also claimed that Hamas was trying to stop civilians from leaving the war zone.

He accused the UN of relying on Hamas inputs for gauging the ground situation.

"For years, the UN has refused to establish verification mechanisms that can provide us a truthful picture of reality. WHO supplies the UN with these so-called facts. Sorry, who is it that supplies the UN with these so-called facts? Is this information coming from unbiased and impartial third parties? The answer is no. Every piece of information regarding the situation on the ground that this Council receives comes from Hamas, not international UN employees in Gaza," the envoy added.

Meanwhile, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday defended its military's decision to encircle Gaza's largest hospital, saying Hamas uses civilians as human shields. It also said Hamas has established a bunker under the hospital.

The director of the Shifa hospital, Mohammed Abu Selmia, said because medical devices couldn't work due to absence of electricity, "patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die".

Palestine's health authorities said five patients died after the generator shut down.

Netanyahu said the responsibility for harm to civilians lies with Hamas. He also said the group was doing everything it can to prevent civilians from leaving for safer places.

Level of death and suffering 'hard to fathom', says WHO

GENEVA, Nov 7: The "level of death and suffering" in the Israel-Gaza war is "hard to fathom", the World Health Organization has said.

Speaking in Geneva, the organisation's spokesman Christian Lindmeier said there had been more than 100 strikes on health facilities since the conflict began.

He noted the death tolls of more than 1,400 in Israel, and said the figure of more than 10,000 people killed in Gaza was "a half percent of the population".

"An average of about 160 children are killed every day. Nothing justifies the horror being endured by the civilians in Gaza."

Earlier, Lindmeier said people in Gaza were having operations, including amputations, without anaesthesia.