UNICEF chief warns Gaza kids face 'post-generational challenges'

Site of an Israeli strike on the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip
FILE PHOTO: Palestinian children sit at the site of an Israeli strike on the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where displaced people were taking shelter in tents, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 5, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Source: REUTERS

UNICEF chief warns Gaza kids face 'post-generational challenges'

By Bo Erickson

After a year of military operations between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the head of UNICEF warned that children there will face "post-generational challenges” due to the conflict.

"If you look at Gaza really through the eyes of a child, it is a hellscape," UNICEF's executive director Catherine Russell told CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, noting the toll of family deaths and displacements, as well as ongoing lack of food and clean water.

"They are so traumatized by what's happening," Russell said of the kids. "Even if we can get more supplies in there, the trauma that these children are suffering is going to have lifetime and even post-generational challenges for them."

The fighting started on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters killed 1,200 civilians and took about 250 hostages in Israel, according to Israeli tallies.

Russell said it remains "very dangerous" to move humanitarian aid in Gaza. However, she credited her organization with a "success story" of vaccinating thousands of children for polio in the area.

On the latest Israeli military operations in Lebanon targeting Iran-backed group Hezbollah, the UNICEF director said "the speed and intensity is shocking" and that "it makes it challenging for us" to reach the approximately 1 million displaced people there.

“I feel confident at this point that we can meet the needs but it is taking a tremendous amount of effort on our part to do it," Russell said.

This article was produced by Reuters news agency. It has not been edited by Global South World.

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