UNICEF says children in Gaza do not have the energy to cry

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Sunday that over 13,000 children have been killed, with thousands more wounded, during the ongoing Israeli offensive against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since 7 October last year.

“We haven’t seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told “Face the Nation” on CBS News. “I’ve been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anaemia malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet. Because the children, the babies… don’t even have the energy to cry.”

Russell pointed out that there are “very great bureaucratic challenges” to getting aid trucks into Gaza. “Trucks and moving things by land is by far the most efficient and effective way to get aid in.” The comment came as the UAE and Egypt made the ninth airdrop of aid into Gaza.

On Sunday, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned that people in Gaza “are on the verge of famine,” adding that, “Safe, unimpeded and sustained access throughout the #GazaStrip is a matter of life and death.”

The agency added in a post on X: “@UNRWA needs to be able to reach as many people as possible with critical aid. Delivery via land remains the most efficient and safest way.”

Earlier on Sunday, NGO Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) said that “words cannot describe” the current “catastrophic” situation in Gaza. In rare communication with one of its members of staff on the ground in Gaza, nurse Loay Harb told colleagues that he provides medical support “where he can.”

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