CNA Staff, Oct 31, 2023 / 17:30 pm
The director of the United Nations Children’s Fund warned this week of a looming humanitarian disaster in Gaza as clean drinking water supplies reportedly dwindle to dangerously low levels there.
Catherine Russell, the executive director of UNICEF, said in a briefing to the U.N. Security Council on Monday that the “devastating tally” of the weekslong Israel-Hamas war is “quickly adding up,” particularly among children, “over 3,400” of whom have been killed in Gaza so far, she said.
On Oct. 20, the Catholic humanitarian group Aid to the Church in Need similarly warned of the looming “devastation” facing civilians caught in the conflict.
After being attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, resulting in the deaths of some 1,400 Israelis, Israel has waged a war in Gaza against Hamas’ military forces, which are deeply embedded among the civilian population and using hundreds of hostages taken by the terrorist group in its Oct. 7 attack and others as human shields. The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 8,000 people have been killed in the Gaza area, though that tally has not been independently verified.