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Niños vistos de espaldas estudian con un maestro dentro de un aula en tienda, con cuadernos sobre mesas sencillas
Imagen ilustrativa generada: aula en tienda con niños que retoman el aprendizaje junto a su maestro · Erick Prometeo Media

UNICEF: 340 children killed in Gaza despite the ceasefire agreement

UNICEF said more than 340 children have been reported killed and hundreds more injured despite the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, with 33…

--- The context --- A little over one year since a ceasefire agreement was announced between Hamas fighters and Israel, UNICEF said on Friday that children in Gaza continue to be killed and injured. Spokesperson Ricardo Pires stressed that, for families mourning their children, those statistics do not equate with a ceasefire. --- The facts --- UNICEF placed the reported toll since the agreement was announced at more than 340 children killed, with hundreds more injured. Mr. Pires told journalists in Geneva that airstrikes, drone strikes and gunfire across the Strip had killed five boys and two girls in the last two weeks in Gaza alone, had seriously injured at least 33 children, and that another two boys died of earlier injuries. The case of 16-year-old Norhan shows how that burden falls on children. Mr. Pires explained that her mother was shot while eight months pregnant, delivered her baby and then died the following day. Her father is living with a disability, so Norhan now cares for her one-year-old sister Narjis: she tidies the home, cooks and helps her three other siblings with their studies after class at a UNICEF-supported learning centre. According to UNICEF, 800,000 children remain displaced in Gaza, most in tents or dangerous bombed-out buildings. An estimated 60,000 children have seen either one or both parents killed during the war, or since the ceasefire, while nearly every child needs mental health support. --- The positions --- Mr. Pires added that the war is everywhere for children, in where they sleep, what they eat and whether they can learn. Asked about reports that private traders had halted cooperation on allowing food trucks to enter, he stressed that the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian and commercial goods remained essential for recovery, and recalled the pre-ceasefire days when supplies were not getting into Gaza City and famine was declared. The spokesperson also warned about the sanitation crisis, where Israeli bombardment has severely damaged the drainage network. He described large wastewater pools, among them the Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin, now half-full, and warned that, with winter rains fast approaching, time is running out to pump it out before contaminated water spills into residential areas downstream. --- What remains unknown --- The update does not set out how food truck access will evolve or what steps will prevent wastewater overflowing before the rains. It also gives no timetable for strengthening shelter for displaced families as temperatures drop. --- Unanswered questions --- Will humanitarian and commercial goods keep flowing into Gaza without interruption? Will the Sheikh Radwan basin be pumped out in time before the winter rains? What added protection will the 800,000 displaced children receive during the winter? How will mental health support reach nearly every child who needs it? --- EPM analysis --- Education is a path to recovery: UNICEF has helped more than 560,000 children return to learning since the ceasefire, including at over 200 UNICEF-supported learning centres. It has also given digital cash help to more than 380,000 people and safe water to 1.2 million people. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, a ceasefire that coexists with 340 reported child deaths and 33 children seriously injured in two weeks must be judged by the safety it delivers each day, not by its announcement alone. The immediate priorities are protecting children, sustaining the flow of essential goods, resolving the sanitation emergency before the rains and expanding the return to learning that has already reached more than 560,000 children, because without safety, clean water, shelter and schooling there is no recovery for Gaza.
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