UNICEF chief warns everyone in northern Gaza 'in danger of dying'

Catherine Russell, director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, warned on Saturday that every man, woman and child remaining in northern Gaza “faces imminent risk of death.”

Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah on Friday, November 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

About a month ago, Israel launched an attack on Northern Gaza to implement its so-called “general plan” to carry out ethnic cleansing throughout Northern Gaza. Virtually no food, water or medical supplies are allowed into the northern part of the Gaza Strip, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee.

It is stated that those who remained (estimated at around 100,000) were deprived of all vital needs and systematically starved or killed due to Israeli bombardment.

Israel’s “general plan” is being carried out with the approval and support of the United States, which continues to finance and arm Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The United States is also sending troops to the Middle East to help Israel’s escalating war against the people of Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.

As a result of this campaign of starvation and killing, Russell said, “the entire Palestinian population in northern Gaza, especially children, is in danger of dying from disease, famine and ongoing bombardments.”

“This has already been a deadly weekend of attacks in northern Gaza.” Russell added: “In the last 48 hours alone, more than 50 children have been reported killed in Jabalia, where strikes destroyed two residences housing hundreds of people.”

He continued: “Taken together with the appalling levels of child deaths resulting from other attacks in northern Gaza, these latest events come together to write a new dark chapter in one of the darkest periods of this terrible war.”

Russell said international law prohibits the targeting of civilians and humanitarian workers. “Yet these principles are repeatedly violated, and tens of thousands of children are killed, injured, and deprived of basic services needed to survive.”

These statements were echoed by Save the Children spokesperson Rachel Cummings, who told Al Jazeera: “We are currently seeing the apocalypse unfolding in northern Gaza. People are constantly bombarded with air raids and of course we know that food and water are not enough. Food and water convoys are not allowed into the north… This is an absolute disaster.”

He added that 20,000 children were missing or unaccompanied, while 14,000 were confirmed to have been killed. “(Children) are forced to take on roles that are not appropriate for children in family environments. They take on caregiver roles. “They have to try to carry water and find food,” he said. “They saw things no child should see.”

The mass killing continued on Sunday, with Israeli strikes killing 31 people in the Gaza Strip that day, Reuters reported. The killings took place in separate attacks on houses in the town of Beit Lahiya and Jabalia. Israeli forces attacked Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya, seriously wounding a child and damaging the facility’s nursery.

Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, Dr. Hussam Abu Safia told Al Jazeera about the terrible conditions in which medical staff worked. “As Israeli forces raided the hospital and detained all medical staff, my assistant doctor and I were left alone between a rock and a hard place to either give up or do what we could to save lives,” Abu said. he said. Safiya told Al Jazeera. “We were inundated with victims suffering all kinds of injuries.” He concluded: “We were abandoned by the whole world, left to work under unimaginably difficult and terrible conditions.”

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Watch wrote in a statement: “The Israeli army has targeted schools, hospitals, clinics and shelters 65 times since the beginning of August 2024, 39 of which were in the current October, and killed 672 people. Palestinians and more than 1,000 others were also injured, according to the Euro-Med Monitor field team.”

At least 43,341 people have been killed and 102,105 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement over the weekend. According to UN figures, much of Gaza has been destroyed; 87 percent of residences were destroyed or damaged, and 87 percent of school buildings were destroyed or damaged.

Continued Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon this weekend injured 10 people and damaged two hospitals. According to Al Jazeera, 85 healthcare workers lost their lives in Israeli attacks between September 17 and October 31.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, the death toll from Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Lebanon has reached 2,986 people, including at least 772 women and children.

Against the backdrop of this unfolding catastrophe, the United States is only deepening its involvement in Israel’s aggression in the Middle East. Over the weekend, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Michael Kurilla arrived in Israel to tour the deployment of U.S. combat troops in the country manning the U.S. air defense battery. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the visit focused on “threats in the Middle East, especially Iran” and that the Israeli army would “deepen its relationship with the US armed forces.”

On Saturday, US Central Command announced that B-52 bombers, which can both carry nuclear weapons and conduct massive saturation bombings, have arrived in the Middle East. “B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers from the 5th Bomb Wing of Minot Air Force Base have arrived in the area of responsibility of the US Central Command,” Central Command said in a statement.

In a statement quoted Jerusalem PostThe U.S. Air Force said B-52 bombers are capable of delivering “nuclear or precision-guided conventional munitions with world-class precision navigation capability.” “In a conventional conflict, the B-52 can conduct strategic strikes, close air support, air interdiction, counter air strikes and naval operations,” the statement said. The strategic bombers are part of the deployment of US destroyers, fighter squadrons and tankers to support Israel’s war in the region.

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