NEW YORK: UNICEF on Monday warned that some 600,000 children staying in Gaza’s Rafah city face further catastrophe, condemning their forced relocation after Israel ordered an evacuation before its long-threatened military invasion.
The UN children’s agency said in a statement that keeping in view the high concentration of children in Rafah, the UN body is warning of a further catastrophe for children, with military operations having very high civilian casualties.
It noted the youth of Gaza is already on the edge of survival, with many taking shelter in Rafah. The UN agency said the population of Gaza has increased to 1.2 million people and half of them are children.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said more than 200 days of war has seen an unimaginable toll on children.
She went on to say Rafah is now a city of children, who have no space to go. The UN official warned that a large-scale military offensive by Israel would bring chaos and panic to the besieged enclave.
According to the UNICEF estimates Rafah’s population has reached to nearly five times its normal figure of 250,000 residents.
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The agency said that there are about 78,000 infants under age two years of age sheltering in Rafah city, along with 175,000 children under five years.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to send ground troops into Rafah irrespective of any truce and concerns from the US, other nations, and aid groups.
According to the Gaza health ministry over 34,600 Palestinians have been killed mostly women and children in brutal Israeli strikes since October 7. Similarly, more than 78,000 people including women and children have been wounded in Israel’s air strikes.
