Gaza: Children Deserve Security, Education, & Hope - Humanitarian UN Official | United Nations

The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher today (23 Jan) told the Security Council that “the children of Gaza are not collateral damage” and are “as deserving as children everywhere of security, education and hope.”

Before today’s meeting on the situation of children in the occupied Palestinian territory began, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya asked for the floor. Nebenzya said, “the refusal” of UNICEF's Head Catherine Russell to brief today’s Council session, was “a flagrant step which deserves our most serious censure.”

The Russian Ambassador said Russell, “during the US presidency of the Security Council, came to brief us at the drop of a hat at a disgraceful, politicized briefing about the so-called children's aspects of the situation in Ukraine, on the 4th of December of last year.” Adding, “it would appear that for UNICEF, children in Gaza are less important than children in Ukraine.”

United States Ambassador Dorothy Shea also requested the floor and said, “the idea that the United States is responsible for the terrible suffering there is, just unacceptable to us, and we reject it, in its totality.”

Fletcher told the Council that children in Gaza, “have been killed, starved and frozen to death. They have been maimed, orphaned, separated from their family. Conservative estimates indicate that over 17,000 children are without their families in Gaza. Some died before their first breath, perishing with their mothers in childbirth. An estimated 150,000 pregnant women and new mothers are in desperate need of health services. Children have lost their schools and their education.”

He said children in Gaza “tell us that the world was not there for them throughout this war. We must be there for them now.”

Palestinian author Bisan Nateel, who writes children books, told the Council, “we have always been waiting for the moment when the Security Council would announce a ceasefire to end all these massacres and violations against the Palestinians in Gaza. Today, I hope. To live the ceasefire and for all our children to go back to their schools and for us to go back to our normal life when we used to go to our schools, to work, when we used to play, plant, work. The natural act of life, just to live.”

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour called upon the international community “to enable UNWRA to reopen its schools in the Gaza Strip, and to equip it to welcome thousands of children to resume formal education. And to reach every young boy and girl evenly and safely.”

For his part, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said, “it is Hamas, not Israel, that has turned Gaza into a war zone. It is Hamas, not Israel, that uses children as human shields. It is Hamas, not Israel, that places its terror infrastructure in schools, hospitals and civilian neighbourhoods. But time and time again, this Council chooses to ignore these facts.”

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that large volumes of humanitarian aid continue to enter Gaza through the Erez and Zikim crossings in the north and Kerem Shalom crossing in the south.

Inside Gaza, OCHA says that aid cargo and humanitarian personnel are moving into areas that were previously hard to reach.