Amid ongoing attacks in Gaza, UNICEF revealed on Friday that tens of thousands of minors are unaccompanied or separated from their families.
Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF's top spokesperson in the State of Palestine, reported at a U.N. briefing in Geneva that their estimates show 17,000 children in Gaza are facing this situation.
Crickx emphasized that these children, having no involvement in the conflict, are nonetheless experiencing considerable suffering.
He also underscored that, after nearly four months of relentless attacks, all the children in the enclave are believed to need mental health support.
Before the war began on Oct. 7, 500,000 children were already in need of mental help, but today all of them, more than 1 million children, need psychological support, he added.
Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip last October, killing at least 27,019 Palestinians and injuring 66,139 to date. It followed an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, in which 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.
The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.
