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UN: Gaza 'Hell on Earth' for One Million Children

'Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth for its one million children,' said Elder - AFP
'Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth for its one million children,' said Elder - AFP
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UN: Gaza 'Hell on Earth' for One Million Children

'Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth for its one million children,' said Elder - AFP
'Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth for its one million children,' said Elder - AFP

The one million children in Gaza are living a "hell on Earth", the UN said Friday, with around 40 children having been killed there every day over the past year.

More than a year into Israel's war against Hamas in the besieged Palestinian territory "children continue to suffer unspeakable daily harm", said James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations children's agency UNICEF.

"Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on Earth for its one million children," he told reporters in Geneva. "And it's getting worse, day by day."

Since Hamas's deadly October 7 attack inside Israel, which sparked the war, "conservative" estimates put the death toll among children in Gaza at over 14,100, Elder said, AFP reported.

That means that "on a conservative measure, around 35 to 40 girls and boys are killed every day in Gaza, since October 7", he said.

Elder said the numbers -- provided by authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, who put the total death toll at over 42,400 -- were unfortunately trustworthy.

"There are many, many more under the rubble," he added.

And those who have survived the daily airstrikes and military operations have often faced harrowing conditions, he said. Children were being repeatedly displaced by violence and frequent evacuation orders even as "deprivation grips all of Gaza".

"Where would children and their families go? They are not safe in schools and shelters. They are not safe in hospitals. And they are certainly not safe in overcrowded camp sites," he said.

- Amputation -

Elder described the experience of a seven-year-old girl named Qamar, who was struck in the foot during an attack on Jabaliya camp in northern Gaza.

Taken to a hospital that was then placed under a 20-day siege, she could not be moved or get the treatment she needed for her growing infection, and her leg was amputated.

"In any vaguely normal situation, this little girl's leg would never have needed to be amputated," said Elder.

Faced with fresh evacuation orders from Israel, the girl, her mother and her sister, who was also injured, were forced to move south, on foot.

"They now live in a ripped tent, surrounded by stagnant water," Elder said, adding that Qamar was "of course deeply traumatized", and without access to prosthetics.

UNICEF had already warned that Gaza had become "a graveyard for thousands of children" a year ago, he said.

Last December, the agency had declared Gaza "the most dangerous place in the world to be a child".

"Day after day, for more than a year now, that brutal evidence-based reality is reinforced," Elder added, describing a feeling of "deja vu, but with even darker shadows".

"If this level of horror doesn't stir our humanity and drive us to act, then whatever will?"

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What to Know about Sudden Gains of the Opposition in Syria's 13-year War and Why it Matters

Fighters seize a Syrian Army tank near the international M5 highway in the area Zarbah which was taken over by anti-government factions on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied groups continue their offensive in Syria's northern Aleppo province against government forces. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)
Fighters seize a Syrian Army tank near the international M5 highway in the area Zarbah which was taken over by anti-government factions on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied groups continue their offensive in Syria's northern Aleppo province against government forces. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)
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What to Know about Sudden Gains of the Opposition in Syria's 13-year War and Why it Matters

Fighters seize a Syrian Army tank near the international M5 highway in the area Zarbah which was taken over by anti-government factions on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied groups continue their offensive in Syria's northern Aleppo province against government forces. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)
Fighters seize a Syrian Army tank near the international M5 highway in the area Zarbah which was taken over by anti-government factions on November 29, 2024, as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and allied groups continue their offensive in Syria's northern Aleppo province against government forces. (Photo by Rami al SAYED / AFP)

The 13-year civil war in Syria has roared back into prominence with a surprise opposition offensive on Aleppo, one of Syria's largest cities and an ancient business hub. The push is among the opposition’s strongest in years in a war whose destabilizing effects have rippled far beyond the country's borders.
It was the first opposition attack on Aleppo since 2016, when a brutal air campaign by Russian warplanes helped Syrian President Bashar Assad retake the northwestern city. Intervention by Russia, Iran and Iranian-allied Hezbollah and other groups has allowed Assad to remain in power, within the 70% of Syria under his control.
The surge in fighting has raised the prospect of another violent front reopening in the Middle East, at a time when US-backed Israel is fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, both Iranian-allied groups.
Robert Ford, the last-serving US ambassador to Syria, pointed to months of Israeli strikes on Syrian and Hezbollah targets in the area, and to Israel’s ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon this week, as factors providing Syria’s opposition groups with the opportunity to advance.
Here's a look at some of the key aspects of the new fighting:
Why does the fighting at Aleppo matter? Assad has been at war with opposition forces seeking his overthrow for 13 years, a conflict that's killed an estimated half-million people. Some 6.8 million Syrians have fled the country, a refugee flow that helped change the political map in Europe by fueling anti-immigrant far-right movements.
The roughly 30% of the country not under Assad is controlled by a range of opposition forces and foreign troops. The US has about 900 troops in northeast Syria, far from Aleppo, to guard against a resurgence by the ISIS extremist group. Both the US and Israel conduct occasional strikes in Syria against government forces and Iran-allied militias. Türkiye has forces in Syria as well, and has influence with the broad alliance of opposition forces storming Aleppo.
Coming after years with few sizeable changes in territory between Syria's warring parties, the fighting “has the potential to be really quite, quite consequential and potentially game-changing,” if Syrian government forces prove unable to hold their ground, said Charles Lister, a longtime Syria analyst with the US-based Middle East Institute. Risks include if ISIS fighters see it as an opening, Lister said.
Ford said the fighting in Aleppo would become more broadly destabilizing if it drew Russia and Türkiye— each with its own interests to protect in Syria — into direct heavy fighting against each other. -
What do we know about the group leading the offensive on Aleppo? The US and UN have long designated the opposition force leading the attack at Aleppo — Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known by its initials HTS — as a terrorist organization.
Its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, emerged as the leader of al-Qaeda's Syria branch in 2011, in the first months of Syria's war. His fight was an unwelcome intervention to many in Syria's opposition, who hoped to keep the fight against Assad's brutal rule untainted by violent extremism.
Golani early on claimed responsibility for deadly bombings, pledged to attack Western forces and sent religious police to enforce modest dress by women.
Golani has sought to remake himself in recent years. He renounced his al-Qaeda ties in 2016. He's disbanded his religious police force, cracked down on extremist groups in his territory, and portrayed himself as a protector of other religions. That includes last year allowing the first Christian Mass in the city of Idlib in years.
What's the history of Aleppo in the war? At the crossroads of trade routes and empires for thousands of years, Aleppo is one of the centers of commerce and culture in the Middle East.
Aleppo was home to 2.3 million people before the war. Opposition forces seized the east side of the city in 2012, and it became the proudest symbol of the advance of armed opposition factions.
In 2016, government forces backed by Russian airstrikes laid siege to the city. Russian shells, missiles and crude barrel bombs — fuel canisters or other containers loaded with explosives and metal — methodically leveled neighborhoods. Starving and under siege, the opposition surrendered Aleppo that year.
The Russian military's entry was the turning point in the war, allowing Assad to stay on in the territory he held.
This year, Israeli airstrikes in Aleppo have hit Hezbollah weapons depots and Syrian forces, among other targets, according to an independent monitoring group. Israel rarely acknowledges strikes at Aleppo and other government-held areas of Syria.