Gaza ‘graveyard' for Palestinian children: UN agency chief

The Gaza Strip has become a “graveyard” for children amid relentless Israeli attacks on the enclave, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Wednesday.

Israel has launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack last year, killing nearly 44,000 people, most of them women and children, and injuring over 104,000.

“Gaza has become a graveyard for children,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement marking World Children's Day.

“They are being killed, injured, forced to flee & deprived of safety, learning and play,” he said. “They have been robbed of their childhood and are on the verge of becoming a lost generation as they lose another school year.”

Lazzarini said the world made a commitment to respect and uphold children's rights by adopting the Convention on the Rights of the Child three decades ago.“Today, the rights of Palestinian children are violated day in, day out,” he added.

His post was accompanied by a photo of two visibly weary children in Gaza wearing tattered clothing. The image, taken at a UNRWA-run school converted into a shelter for displaced families, symbolizes the deprivation Palestinian children face as their education and safety are disrupted by the Israeli war.

The UNRWA chief said Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank also live in fear and anxiety.

“Since October last year, more than 170 were killed there while others are losing their childhood in Israeli detention centers,” he added.

“The occupied Palestinian territory is no place for children,” Lazzarini continued. “They deserve better, they deserve peace, justice and a better future.”

The second year of genocide in Gaza has drawn increasing international recognition, with figures and institutions labeling the events as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.