UNICEF warns ‘the unthinkable’ already unfolding in Gaza City
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Mothers mourn children lost to hunger as Gaza’s hospitals fail and famine spreads; UNICEF warns the cost of inaction will be children’s lives.
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Nour al-Hams holds her 3-year-old nephew, Amr al-Hams, who lies in a hospital bed with brain damage caused by an Israeli strike on his family's tent in April, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP)
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Thursday that a catastrophe is already underway in Gaza City as "Israel" intensifies its aggression, with food and medicine running out and functioning hospitals being targeted.
Tess Ingram, UNICEF’s Communications Manager for the Middle East and North Africa, described the city as “a place where childhood cannot survive” after spending nine days on the ground. “The unthinkable is not looming. It is already here,” she told reporters in New York.
Out of 92 UNICEF-supported nutrition centers, only 44 remain operational, leaving thousands of malnourished children without treatment. Hospitals are collapsing under strain: just 11 are partly functioning, with only five neonatal units. 40 incubators are serving nearly double their capacity, keeping as many as 80 newborns alive on fragile power supplies and dwindling medicines.
Ingram recounted meeting families displaced multiple times, mothers who lost children to hunger, and young patients with bodies “shredded by shrapnel.” Famine, she said, was “everywhere I looked in Gaza City.”
Mother loses child to famine, another 'hanging on'
She highlighted the case of a mother, Nesma, whose two-year-old daughter recently died from malnutrition after aid blockages cut off treatment. Her surviving child is “barely hanging on.”
UNICEF has reportedly provided emergency food for more than 3,000 children, along with support for infants, pregnant women, and access to safe drinking water. But the agency warns that far more is needed and is seeking $716 million this year to respond to the crisis.
“The cost of inaction will be measured in the lives of children buried in rubble, wasted by hunger and silenced before they even had a chance to speak,” Ingram stressed, urging "Israel" to allow greater aid access, and for states with influence to press for an end to the war.
Israeli strikes kill Gazan children sleeping in shelter tents
The Israeli occupation forces continued their heavy bombardment of Gaza City at dawn Friday, causing more civilian casualties.
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent confirmed that four Palestinians were killed, including two children, and several others were wounded when Israeli aircraft struck a residential building near al-Saraya Square in the heart of Gaza City.
In a separate incident, Israeli strikes targeted tents sheltering forcibly displaced people in the vicinity of al-Shifa Hospital, resulting in at least three fatalities and multiple injuries.
Our correspondent added that artillery shelling targeted the eastern neighborhoods of Gaza City, while Israeli quadcopter drones opened fire on civilians attempting to flee the area.
Meanwhile, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israeli invading units detonated explosive devices to demolish residential blocks in Beit Hanoun, leaving dozens of Palestinian families without shelter.
