Israel has massacred over 13,000 innocent Palestinian children in its monthlong war on the Gaza Strip while pushing thousands of others into severe malnutrition, the U.N. children's agency has found.
"Thousands more have been injured or we can't even determine where they are. They may be stuck under rubble ... We haven't seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told CBS News' "Face the Nation" program Sunday.
"I've been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anemia malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet. Because the children, the babies ... don't even have the energy to cry."
Russell said there were "very great bureaucratic challenges" moving trucks into Gaza for aid and assistance.
She added that the profound impact on children in Gaza, stemming from the stress, grief, loss, and fear they experience, is bound to have lasting effects on them and potentially on their own offspring as well.
"We know now that children are dying from malnutrition in Gaza," she said.
"I've seen a lot of children, unfortunately, in my job around the world who suffer from malnutrition. It is a shocking thing to see."
"Essentially, the body starts to consume itself because it has nothing else and it's a painful, painful death for children," she further said.
She added that even if therapeutic feeding can be provided to those in need, they often endure lifelong consequences, such as stunted growth, which also affects their cognitive abilities.
"It is a lifelong challenge for these children if they survive," she added.
International criticism has mounted on Israel due to the death toll of the war, the starvation crisis in Gaza, and allegations of blocking aid deliveries into the enclave.
A U.N. expert said earlier this month that Israel was destroying Gaza's food system as part of a broader "starvation campaign." Israel rejected the accusation.
Israel's brutal war on Gaza has displaced nearly its entire 2.3 million-person population, caused a starvation crisis, flattened most of the enclave, and killed over 31,000 people, according to Gaza's health ministry. It has also led to accusations of genocide being probed in the World Court.
Israel denies the genocide charges and says it is acting in self-defense after the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that killed some 1,160, according to Israeli tallies, and took scores of hostages.
One in three children under age 2 in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished and famine is looming, the main U.N. agency operating in the Palestinian enclave said on Saturday.
