160 children being killed per day in Gaza: WHO
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Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said that an average of 160 children are being killed every day in Gaza, as the ongoing Israel-Palestine war has completed a month since it erupted on October 7.
More than 10,000 people have been killed so far, including 16 health workers on duty. WHO is working to support health workers in Gaza and once again pleading for their safety, the world body's spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said at a press conference in Geneva.
"People in Gaza are dying in their thousands, and those alive are suffering from trauma, disease, lack of food and water," Lindmeier said.
"Nothing justifies the horror being endured by civilians in Gaza," he said, stressing their "desperate need for water, fuel, food and safe access to health care to survive".
The WHO spokesman reiterated the UN's calls for "unhindered, safe and secure access" for some 500 trucks of aid a day — not only across the border but also “all the way through to the patients in the hospitals”, where surgeries including amputations were being performed without anaesthesia.
The level of death and suffering is “hard to fathom”, he added.
UN chief Antonio Guterres had said that "Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children," as hundreds of girls and boys are being killed or injured every day.
At least 10,328 Palestinians, including 4,237 children and 2,719 women, have been killed and 24,408 injured since October 7.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, over 2,450 people, including 1,350 kids, have been reported missing and may be trapped or dead under the rubble.