Over 50 children killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza's Jabalia in two days: UN | Gaza News

UNICEF says “horrific child deaths” are occurring in the northern Gaza Strip as Israel’s months-long violent siege continues.

According to UNICEF, more than 50 children have been killed in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza in the last 48 hours. The charity Save the Children said the high number showed “the intensity of this conflict and this war against children”.

“Children are constantly bombed and are constantly afraid,” Rachel Cummings, humanitarian director and team leader for Save the Children International in Gaza, told Al Jazeera on Sunday.

Palestinian officials say more than 16,700 children have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza since October last year, more than a third of the total death toll of 43,341 confirmed by health authorities.

Cummings said from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza that the number of child casualties does not explain the approximately 20,000 people who are missing or unaccompanied in this war.

Israel has killed more than 1,000 people during its months-long violent siege of northern Gaza, blocking access to food and medical aid and crippling health facilities.

“People are constantly bombarded with airstrikes and of course we know that the food and water are not enough. Food and water convoys are being denied to the north… This is absolutely disastrous,” Cummings said.

“We are seeing the apocalypse now unfolding in northern Gaza.”

Dr. Hussam Abu Safia of Kamal Adwan Hospital, the only functioning facility in northern Gaza, said the hospital was “overwhelmed with victims.”

He called on the international community and health organizations to push for “urgent humanitarian passage” to deliver fuel and medical supplies, as well as the provision of specialized medical personnel to care for the victims.

“Shockingly high number of child deaths”

In its statement on Saturday, the UN agency said the children were killed in an Israeli strike that leveled two residential buildings housing hundreds of people.

“Together with the appalling scale of child deaths in northern Gaza from other attacks, these recent events write another dark chapter in one of the darkest periods of this terrible war,” said a statement from UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

It also said a UNICEF worker working on a polio vaccination campaign in the north of the enclave was shot at by a quadcopter while driving through Jabalia, where Israel has suffered the worst attacks.

“The attacks on Jabalia, the vaccination clinic and the UNICEF worker are another example of the serious consequences of the indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip. “The entire Palestinian population in northern Gaza, especially children, is in imminent danger of dying from disease, starvation and the ongoing bombardment,” the statement said.

On Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Israeli forces dropped a stun grenade on a polio vaccination center in Gaza City, injuring at least four children, despite agreeing to a humanitarian pause on a long-delayed vaccination campaign.

During the siege, the Israeli army also killed 13 Palestinians in an airstrike on two densely populated areas in the north, sparking a humanitarian crisis. UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the “darkest moment” of the conflict was occurring in northern Gaza.

After a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel launched the military offensive that many are calling a “war of revenge” against the Palestinians. More than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, were killed and around 240 people were captured in the attack.