GENEVA: At least 100 children have been killed by Israeli airstrikes and ground forces in Gaza since the start of a tenuous ceasefire three months ago, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
The UN children´s agency Unicef said that at least 60 boys and 40 girls had been killed in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory since early October.
“More than 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire,” Unicef spokesman James Elder told reporters in Geneva.
“That´s roughly a girl or a boy killed here every day during a ceasefire,” he said, speaking from Gaza City.
“These children are killed from airstrikes, drone strikes, including suicide drones. They´re killed from tank shelling. They´re killed from live ammunition. They´re killed from quad copters.
“We are at 100 -- no doubt,” he said, adding that the true number was likely higher.
“A ceasefire that slows the bombs is progress but one that still buries children is not enough.”
An official at Gaza´s health ministry, which maintains casualty records, has reported a higher figure of 165 children killed during the tenuous ceasefire, out of a total 442 fatalities.
“Additionally, seven children have died from exposure to cold since the beginning of this year,” Zaher Al-Wahidi, Director of the Computer Department at the Ministry of Health said.
