Live updates on Israel’s Hezbollah war: Hezbollah has turned Lebanese villages into attack bases, Israel claims

Gaza children “extremely affected” by war: UNICEF

Nearly a year of devastating war has left Gaza’s 2.4 million people suffering a humanitarian tragedy, with children most at risk in the besieged territory, a UNICEF official said in an interview with AFP.

Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for the U.N. agency for the Palestinian territories, returned from a week-long mission in Gaza this month and is still badly affected even as Israel shifts its military focus to Lebanon.

He spoke to AFP about the plight of children in the Gaza Strip, who have not received a day of education since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

“You see children who are not allowed to live the lives of normal children, no education, no play, no joy,” Crickx said.

“These children’s faces are… so sad.”

Most of the children he saw in the war-ravaged Palestinian territories were helping their families since they no longer had classes to attend.

“So you see a lot of children carrying these dirty yellow plastic canisters with up to 25 liters of water,” he said.

“I saw children pushing these jerry cans with a broken wheelchair and trying to get water, which is one of the biggest problems… in the Gaza Strip.”

Crickx said it was heartbreaking to see children, some as young as five or six, trying to find food for their families.

They’re “walking around in huge piles of trash trying to get whatever they can,” he said.

“These children have been extremely affected by the violence, bombings and insecurity they have been going through for a year.” (AFP)