UPDATE - For 2 years now, children have paid heaviest price of Gaza crisis: UNICEF

UPDATES WITH OCHA'S REMARKS

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) – UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, on Tuesday decried the grave price paid by innocent children in Gaza, calling on Israel to declare an immediate ceasefire to end what it called an "unprecedented" violence in the besieged enclave.

"For nearly two years now, children have paid the heaviest price in this crisis," UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires told a UN press briefing in Geneva. He said "an average of one child (is) either killed or maimed every 17 minutes," calling the figure "unacceptable" and "staggering."

Pires, on the second anniversary of the Israeli war, stressed that children are enduring severe physical and psychological trauma, having been orphaned or displaced multiple times, and exposed to "horrors that no child should ever have to look at or live."

He said UNICEF welcomes peace efforts by the US but warned that bombardments and airstrikes continue in both northern and southern Gaza.

On Sept. 29, US President Donald Trump unveiled a 20-point proposal that includes the release of all Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a ceasefire, the disarmament of Hamas, and the rebuilding of Gaza. Hamas agreed to the plan in principle.

The agency raised alarm over repeated denials of humanitarian access. Pires said incubators and ventilators desperately needed for premature babies have been blocked.

"We're talking about children sharing oxygen masks in order to stay alive," he said, noting that one in five babies in Gaza is now born prematurely.

The agency is still awaiting clearance to deliver critical medical equipment from the north to the south, despite repeated requests.

Malnutrition is also surging, with more than 10,000 children diagnosed with acute malnutrition in the past two months, he said. Around 2,400 children in Gaza City are currently receiving treatment for severe acute malnutrition, which Pires warned could prove fatal if they are cut off from care.

"The disproportionate response that followed (October, 2023), which today continues, needs to end, and it needs to end now," he implored.

- 2 years of restrictions against aid

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), painted a stark picture of the restrictions facing humanitarian aid in Gaza, where over the past two years, OCHA had more than 8,000 coordinated mission and movement requests, of which more than a quarter have been denied -- 2,250.

He explained that these are missions inside Gaza requiring Israeli approval, often directed to the worst-affected areas where fighting is ongoing. "That's where we need coordination," Laerke said.

According to the agency, 45% of all requests were either denied or impeded en route, with convoys "held up, delayed, or even forced to return."

Another 10% of requests were withdrawn, typically due to changing security conditions. Only 45% of requests have been facilitated by Israeli authorities and reached their intended destination, he said.

The Israeli military has killed over 67,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless attacks have rendered the enclave all but uninhabitable and has led to mass displacement, starvation, and the spread of disease.