Gazan children suffer from ‘devastating levels of stress’ — UN agency

A wounded Palestinian boy reacts at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 1, 2024. (Photo/REUTERS/Hatem Khaled)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has warned against the psychological toll facing the children in Gaza as a result of the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the besieged enclave.

“Children in Gaza are suffering devastating levels of stress,” said the agency in a statement on X on Saturday.

“UNRWA team is working with children and adolescents to mitigate the impact of the horrors of war,” it added.

Palestinians, who were displaced by Israel's military offensive on south Gaza, make their way as they attempt to return to their homes in north Gaza through an Israeli checkpoint, as seen from central Gaza Strip April 15, 2024. (Photo/REUTERS/Ramadan Abed)

“Our counselors offer them hope and comfort,” the agency said, noting: “We have to protect their present and their future.”

“Ceasefire Now,” reiterated UNRWA.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since an October 7 Hamas incursion which killed some 1,200 people.

Mourners react near to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, April 27, 2024. (Photo/REUTERS/Hatem Khaled)

Tel Aviv, in comparison, has killed more than 34,600 Palestinians and wounded nearly 78,000 amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in the Palestinian territory.

Nearly seven months into the Israeli onslaught, vast swathes of Gaza lie in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement besides a crippling blockade on food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Palestinians gather to receive food meals cooked by World Central Kitchen (WCK) after the charity resumed operations, at a school sheltering displaced people, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip May 1, 2024. (Photo/REUTERS/Ramadan Abed)

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to prevent genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

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Source: TRT