Strip demonstrates that there something “clearly wrong” with Israel’s military actions against Palestinian militants affiliated with Hamas.
Following an Oct. 7 onslaught in which the militants killed 1,400 people and kidnapped over 240 more, Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Israel has launched a land invasion, imposed a siege, and begun airstrikes against the 2.3-million-person enclave of Gaza.
However, something is obviously wrong when one considers the number of civilians who died as a result of military actions, Guterres told Reuters NEXT.
According to Palestinian statistics, 10,569 people have died so far, with 40% of them being minors.
In his annual report to the U.N. Security Council, Guterres linked the death toll from conflicts worldwide with the number of children being killed in Gaza.
A list designed to embarrass parties to wars in the hopes of pressuring them to enact child protection measures is included in the U.N. report on children and armed conflict.
After the UN confirmed that Russia’s armed forces had murdered 136 children in Ukraine in 2022, Guterres added the country to the report’s list of perpetrators in June. By mid-2024, the next report is expected.
Additionally, he added that 92 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) had lost their lives in Gaza.
In addition to calling the humanitarian situation in Gaza “catastrophic,” Guterres stated that “humanitarian aid into Gaza must flow in a way that meets the dramatic needs that the population is facing.”
The UN has been attempting to supply Gaza with more humanitarian aid. Only 630 vehicles had been able to enter through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt in the previous eighteen days, according to Guterres. Additionally, the UN seeks access to Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing.
