The child death toll in Gaza has today topped 100, with conservative estimates putting it at 101 dead children since fighting began 11 days ago.
Tuesday 6 January 2009
This latest death toll does not include the children killed in today’s bombing of a school in Jabaliya refugee camp, where at least 40 people, many of them children, were sheltering from the bombing. All had already had to flee their homes because of the fighting.
Ken Caldwell, Director, International Operations, Save the Children, based in London, said: "Children continue to be innocent victims in this horrific conflict. This bombing of safe shelter is an outrage. This morning the child death toll had already topped 100. This school attack will have pushed that number even higher.
“Young children are suffering the worst of this crisis. They are under immense stress, often unable to sleep, some in such a state of shock that they are unable to cry.”
Many children are now living without proper shelter, having been forced to flee their homes. With food and clean water supplies running scarce, and hospitals already unable to cope with casualties, the threat from malnutrition and disease is huge.
Mr Caldwell continued: “The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening hour by hour. Thousands of young lives are now in acute danger. Every world leader must urgently push again for a ceasefire and immediate humanitarian access, otherwise children will continue to die.”
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