“With one million children in Gaza facing a critical child protection and humanitarian crisis, access to water is a matter of life and death. Every minute counts,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “This initial, limited delivery of water will save lives, but the continued needs are urgent and immense – not just for drinking water, but also for food, fuel, medicine and essential services. If we are unable to provide ongoing humanitarian assistance, there is a real risk of life-threatening disease outbreaks.”
Large parts of Gaza’s infrastructure, including key water and sewage systems, have been destroyed over the past nearly two weeks. Water production capacity is only five percent of normal capacity, and Gaza’s nearly 2.3 million people have access to just three liters of water per person per day. According to the current minimum standards for humanitarian assistance, a person needs at least 15 liters of water per day for drinking, cooking and washing.
Around a million people are on the run, around half of them children. Many of them seek refuge in overcrowded shelters where access to water, sanitation and hygiene is extremely limited – conditions that are particularly dangerous for young children.
“Every child must be protected and humanitarian organizations like UNICEF must be able to safely and predictably deliver humanitarian assistance to children and families in desperate situations in the Gaza Strip,” Russell said. “Above all, all actors must unconditionally protect every child from harm and provide them with the special protection to which they are entitled under the obligations of international humanitarian law.”
More relief supplies are available
UNICEF has provided additional relief supplies for up to 250,000 people at the Rafah border crossing, which can be transported to the Gaza Strip within a few hours. More relief supplies are on the way to the border.
Humanitarian aid must be able to reach children and families in need, regardless of where they are, in compliance with international humanitarian law.
To help children in Gaza in this catastrophic situation and in the midst of violence, UNICEF is calling for:
To open all border crossings with the Gaza Strip for the transport of humanitarian supplies and emergency relief teams; To allow exit from the Gaza Strip in urgent medical cases or to receive essential local health care; To provide safe and sustained access to water, food, medical supplies and fuel, which is necessary to maintain basic services; To protect and respect civil infrastructure such as shelter, health, electricity, water and sanitation facilities; To ensure medical supplies to prevent the outbreak of diseases and to provide care for the sick and to ensure the wounded.
2023-10-21 14:52:09
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