10 children lose legs every day in Gaza: UNRWA
Last Updated on June 27, 2024 9:34 am
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said that 10 children are losing one or both of their legs every day in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
“Basically we are getting 10 children a day who are losing an average leg or two,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday (June 25).
According to data from the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF, Lazzarini said children who lost hands were not included in the calculation.
According to the UN official, 10 children per day means that nearly 2,000 children have lost their legs in the more than 260-day war in Gaza.
Lazzarini said the environment in which injured children are surgically amputating injured legs is terrifying. Sometimes surgery is done without anesthesia. According to him, the children of Gaza are now paying a “high price”.
Referring to the report published by Save the Children on Monday, UNRWA head Lazzarini said that 21,000 children are missing in the ongoing war in Gaza. According to that report, at least 17,000 of the missing children are believed to be separated from their families or unaccompanied. Around 4,000 children are believed to be buried under the rubble. The number of children buried in mass graves is not known.
It does not end here. Children are among the number of casualties reported by Gaza’s health ministry since the start of Israel’s retaliatory strikes. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 37,658 people have been killed in the war so far.
On October 7, the Palestinian independence armed organization Hamas attacked the southern part of Israel. According to Israeli official accounts, 1,195 people were killed in the attack. 251 people were taken hostage. 116 of them are still hostages there. The Israeli army claims that 42 of the hostages died.
In response to the attack by Hamas, Israel started attacking the Gaza Strip from that day.
Source: Xinhua News