UN decries Gaza children 'massive trauma' as Israeli strikes resume
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The United Nations has warned that all one million children in Gaza are experiencing severe trauma due to ongoing Israeli airstrikes, worsened by humanitarian shortages and a lack of mental health support.
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The bodies of victims of an Israeli strike are prepared for burial at Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia northern Gaza, on March 20, 2025 (AP)
The United Nations warned on Friday that all of Gaza's around one million children were facing "massive trauma" as "Israel" resumed its aggression on the strip despite grave assistance shortages.
Humanitarians highlighted an unsettling scenario in Gaza, with an increasing civilian death toll since the occupation renewed strikes on civilians.
Sam Rose, senior deputy field director in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), emphasized the psychological shock for previously traumatized minors to find themselves under bombardment again, calling it a "massive trauma" for one million children in Palestinian territories.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva from Gaza, he said it was "worse this time," noting that this was "because people are already exhausted, they're already degraded, their immune systems, their mental health, (and) populations on the verge of famine. Children who had come back to school after 18 months out of school, now back in tents,... hearing the bombardment around them constantly."
"It's fear on top of fear, cruelty on top of cruelty, and tragedy on top of tragedy."
'Absolute nightmare'
According to James Elder, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Agency UNICEF, traumatized children often begin to process their experience when they return to normalcy.
"Psychologists would say our absolute nightmare is that they return home and then it starts again," he expressed, adding that Gaza is the only "example in modern history in terms of an entire child population needing mental health support."
"That's no exaggeration," he asserted.
In violation of a ceasefire agreement, "Israel" renewed early on Tuesday its war on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 504 people, including more than 190 children, according to the civil defense agency in the Palestinian enclave.
Humanitarians cautioned that "Israel's" move earlier this month to shut off assistance and power to Gaza in response to the impasse in negotiations to extend the truce had exacerbated the situation on the ground.
"We were able to bring in more supplies during the six weeks of the ceasefire than... in the previous six months," Rose added, warning of a reverse in progress.
He stated that there is currently barely enough flour in Gaza to last another six days.
Asked about "Israel's" claim that Hamas has diverted the aid inside Gaza, Rose said he had "not seen any evidence" of that.
"There is no aid being distributed right now, so there is nothing to steal."
Meanwhile, Elder highlighted the necessary supplies that humanitarian organizations were unable to deliver to Gaza. "We've got 180,000 doses of vaccines a few kilometers away that are life-saving and are blocked," he further explained.
He also cited a "massive shortage" of incubators in Gaza, despite growing preterm birth rates. "We have dozens of them, again sitting across the border," he said. "Blocked ventilators for babies."
