“There is no safe place in Gaza,” spokesperson for Unicef Rosalia Bollen told Al Arabiya English’s GNT in an interview Monday, describing the territory as a graveyard for children and a landscape of daily tragedy.
According to Bollen, mass casualty events involving children have occurred “really on a daily basis” in the besieged strip since Israel’s war on Gaza erupted following October 7, 2023 resistance campaign.
Gaza’s health ministry has said that the death toll has surpassed 58,000. The United Nations considers the data accurate.
“There’s at least 17,000 children reported killed within that toll. Those aren’t numbers. Those are boys and girls. There are toddlers and babies,” Bollen said.
When asked about claims that Palestinian casualty figures are unreliable, Bollen denied such allegations.
“My colleagues and I have been present on the ground inside Gaza… Unicef has had a continuous operational presence inside the Gaza Strip throughout this war,” she said.
“We see the child injuries, we come across children who have been separated from their parents or even worse, whose parents have been killed,” she added.
“So this is a daily occurrence that we simply come across and that we document.”
Life-altering injuries
According to Bollen, injuries among Gaza’s children are not only widespread but often life-altering.
“The sad reality is that this is not a unique case. It is not an exception,” she said, referencing the story of a teenage boy at risk of having his hands amputated due to inadequate medical care.
“I have interviewed dozens of children myself inside Gaza… children who’ve been severely injured in bombardments, who have been lucky enough to survive the airstrike, but then are [not] able to access the medical care that they need because of the stress that the health system is under,” she explained.
Hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed and under siege, Bollen noted.
Seven UN agencies on Saturday warned that a fuel shortage imposed by Israel had reached “critical levels,” threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity.
“Hospitals themselves have been turned into battle zones. They face very severe shortages of medicines… there’s just this constant flow of severely injured people day in, day out.”
She added: “I’ve seen children who’ve had their limbs amputated. I have seen children who’ve been burned on very large parts of their bodies. We’re not just talking about a couple of scratches. We are talking about children who will likely have to cope for the rest of their lives with their injuries.”
Mental health crisis
Nearly all of Gaza’s estimated one million children require mental health and psychosocial support, according to Bollen.
“They are trapped in a very dangerous and toxic state of permanent stress,” she said.
Most of the population of more than two million have been displaced at least once during the war. Those who have survived have either sustained injuries or lost family members.
“When you are in Gaza, you constantly hear the buzzing and the rumbling of drones and planes. You hear explosions. You hear planes approaching. You know a bomb is going to drop somewhere. You just don’t know where.”
“Children whom I’ve interviewed talk about death. They’re afraid, they’re terrified of dying, but something they’re even more afraid of is that their parents will die and that they will be left on their own.”
Despite the suffering, Bollen noted that “there hasn’t been any respite for children” apart from a brief ceasefire earlier this year.
