UN: Gaza children ‘stuck in a graveyard’

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said that Gaza’s children are “trapped in a graveyard,” having been bombed, maimed, starved, burned, buried alive under the rubble of their homes, and separated from their parents.

He made this statement at an event held Wednesday on the sidelines of the high-level week of the UN General Assembly in New York, in which he called on member states to join the call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Fletcher emphasized the need to grant humanitarian workers access to women, children, and the elderly in Gaza, who “cannot accept the alarming statements.”

He emphasized the need to pursue accountability, noting that the suffering of children is not limited to Gaza, as children were among those killed and captured in Israel on October 7, 2023. He noted that children in the West Bank are also facing escalating levels of violence.

For its part, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed that Israeli military operations continued throughout the Gaza Strip, including in several neighborhoods of Gaza City, where reports of deaths, injuries, and damage to infrastructure were reported.