UNICEF: Israel's Gaza War Leaves Thousands of Children Dead, Many Starving

“Thousands more have been injured or we can’t even determine where they are. They may be stuck under rubble … We haven’t seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the CBS News network on Sunday.

“I have been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anaemia malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet. Because the children, the babies … don’t even have the energy to cry.”

Russell highlighted the “very great bureaucratic challenges” faced in moving trucks into Gaza for aid and assistance, as famine stalks more than two million Palestinians since the start of Israel’s war.

UNRWA reported that one in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished, warning of looming famine in the besieged enclave under relentless Israeli bombing for more than five months.

International criticism has mounted against Israel for the death toll of the war, the starvation crisis in Gaza, and blocking aid deliveries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his threat of a ground assault on Rafah, the town bordering Egypt, where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge.

“No amount of international pressure will stop us from realizing all the goals of the war,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office. “To do this, we will also operate in Rafah,” he added.

Since October 7, Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 31,645 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displaced nearly two million residents.

Accusations of genocide have been made against Israel, and the matter is being investigated at the UN’s International Court of Justice.