The latest toll is “more than 3,500 children killed since the events of October 7, 6,800 injured, 800 missing”, according to Unicef figures. Jonathan Cricks was the guest of franceinfo.
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The health situation for children in Gaza is particularly worrying, warns Unicef communications director for Palestine, Jonathan Cricks, invited Wednesday November 1 on franceinfo. “Gaza has become a cemetery for children” he denounces and “the fears are frighteningly real”SO “that a third of hospitals and two thirds of front-line clinics are not functioning”.
“The situation is children in the corridors who cannot receive care because we lack everything”. The Unicef communications director for Palestine takes the example of 120 premature children whose incubators are connected to generators threatened by fuel shortages.
Drinking water management is also high risk for children in Gaza: “Most of the water available is unfit for consumption, with high levels of salinity, which has very serious consequences in terms of dehydration and chronic diarrhea”reports Jonathan Cricks, “However, chronic diarrhea is the leading cause of death among children in the world”.
The interruption of telecommunications also causes difficulties
Since Wednesday morning, telephone communications have been cut again, announced the Palestinian telecommunications operator Paltel, “this is a huge problem for our activities on the ground” deplores Jonathan Cricks, “but we must not forget that if a parent has an injured child, for example, they cannot call an ambulance.”
He recalls the position of Unicef and the UN: “We are making the same call: a constant, secure and continuous humanitarian corridor, with the possibility of evacuating people who need treatment. 140 trucks have entered Gaza since October 21, but it is not enough.”