GAZA: DEADLY 24 HOURS UNDERSCORES URGENT NEED FOR GLOBAL INTERVENTION WITH YET MORE CHILDREN KILLED - SAVE THE CHILDREN

RAMALLAH, 25 October 2024 – An horrific 24 hours in Gaza underscores the urgent need for international intervention with scores of people, including many children, and an 11-month-old baby, killed including in a pattern of civilian attacks by Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip, Save the Children said. 

 The threat of attacks and lack of fuel and supplies have left rescue services unable to operate in northern Gaza where more than 150 Palestinians, including children, were reported killed or injured in an attack by Israeli forces on 13 residential buildings in the besieged Jabalia camp overnight Thursday. 

 Save the Children’s Regional Director, Jeremy Stoner, said:  

 “This horrific violence must stop. How many more images of dead and dismembered children will it take for world powers to say ‘enough’? How long can families already on the brink of famine be expected to survive the bombs, bullets and now 21-day siege on the north, blocking entry of aid and supplies? 

 In the past 24 hours alone, a pattern of attacks by Israeli forces across the Gaza Strip have killed scores of people, including many children and an 11-month-old baby. The attacks have targeted a school-turned-shelter in Nuseirat, Kamal Adwan Hospital, and residential homes in Khan Younis -  the very places where children are supposed to be safest, protected under international law. 

  Jabalia refugee camp is turning into a death camp. The successive slaughters of Palestinians and the besiegement of northern Gaza shows the deadly consequences of this inaction. With no red lines, there is no rock bottom. 

 Wounded children are unable to receive medical care as the health system has been systematically destroyed, with reports of babies and children killed by a lack of oxygen when airstrikes on Kamal Radwan Hospital damaged the oxygen station. Families are exhausting all possible means for survival, as food, water and medicines have been denied entry by Israeli authorities.  

 Put simply, those children who have survived so far are running out of time. We are pleading with the international community to urgently intervene. Every possible step must be taken to secure a definitive ceasefire and to ensure adherence to international law. Governments must stop fuelling the conflict with a supply of weapons and ammunition.”  

The UN Commission of Inquiry has concluded that the Government of Israel has ‘committed war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination’. The UN Human Rights Commission has warned of the destruction of the Palestinian population in northern Gaza. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of the Genocide Convention.