Over 300 children killed after Gaza’s new offensive in Israel, says UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Agency says at least 322 children have been reported to have been killed since Israel began an updated offensive in Gaza two weeks ago.

UNICEF said at least 609 other children were injured during the same period.

“The termination of the fire in Gaza has provided a desperately necessary rescue line for Gaza’s children and is hoping on the way to a recovery,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “But children are again immersed in a cycle of deadly violence and deprivation.”

Israel launched its updated Gaza offensive on March 18, accusing Hamas of rejecting a new proposal in the United States to extend the cessation of fire and release the 59 hostages still held in Gaza.

Hamas, for his part, accused Israel of breaching the original deal they agreed to in January.

UNICEF said “ruthlessly and indiscriminate bombing” resumed Gaza, with 100 children killed or crippled every day for 10 days until March 31.

Most of the children killed were displaced and sheltered in makeshift tents or damaged homes, the announcement said.

UNICEF uses figures published by Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza – numbers that Israel is constantly challenging. The numbers are seen by the UN and other international institutions as reliable.

International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel to enter the gas independently, so they are unable to check the numbers from both sides.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC that it was “committed to mitigating civil damage during operational activity” and “to comply with all applicable international legal obligations, including the Armed Conflict Act.”

It states that “he is making great efforts to evaluate and consider potential damage from civil security in his strikes.”

Ever since the war began more than 18 months ago, UNICEF said it was reported that 15,000 children had been killed, over 34,000 were injured, and nearly one million children were repeatedly displaced.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza has been dramatically deteriorating in recent weeks, with Israel deciding to allow help in the Gaza Strip since March 2 – the most long blocking of assistance since the start of the war.

“Without these basic supplies, malnutrition, diseases and other preventive conditions, it will probably increase, which will lead to an increase in preventable children from children,” UNICEF wrote in a press release.

The UN announced that it was reducing its operations in Gaza on March 24, one day after eight Palestinian medics, six first responses to the UN Civil Protection and UN employee and UN employee have been killed by Israeli forces in southern gas.

IDF launches a Hamas destruction campaign, which was appointed a terrorist group from Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries, in response to an unprecedented cross -border attack on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages.

More than 50 399 people were killed in Gaza during the subsequent war, according to Hamas Health Ministry.