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He sees a ceasefire as the only solution to the conflict and welcomes the positive results of the humanitarian pause for polio vaccinations
September 25 (EUROPA PRESS) –
UNICEF spokesman James Elder said there was “no doubt” that the situation in Lebanon – the scene of the latest Israeli army attacks – was “overshadowing” the crisis in the Gaza Strip, where Israel launched a military operation almost a year ago in response to previous attacks by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and focused on the militia’s structures, but which has claimed more than 41,500 lives.
“There is no doubt that there is much less (media) coverage of Gaza just this week, while the attacks have continued in full force,” Elder said during an interview with Europa Press in which he acknowledged that “it is impossible to unravel the relationship between these two conflicts and the way of thinking of those who are carrying them out.”
In this context, Elder has pointed out that the possible end to both conflicts requires the same solution, namely a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. For the UNICEF spokesperson, this agreement would be a “fundamental mechanism for de-escalation in the entire region.” The conflict in Lebanon broke out after the Shiite party-militia Hezbollah launched attacks against Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
The start of the deadly Israeli attacks on Lebanon, which have already left more than 600 dead and thousands injured, has come at a time when “the world was already beginning to look away from Gaza.” “Lebanon may get the media attention, but these things should be closely intertwined,” said the UNICEF spokesman.
SITUATION ON THE GROUND IN GAZA
Elder, who is currently on a trip to the Gaza Strip, his fourth since the outbreak of war nearly a year ago, detailed a visit to a Gaza hospital, where he saw first-hand some of the devastating effects of Israeli attacks and the blockade of humanitarian aid.
Among the scenes she has witnessed are the suffering of a little girl suffering from earache who is unable to access any pain relief drops; or a child with severe burns who needs a skin graft but cannot be operated on in the Gaza Strip or be evacuated abroad.
“Hospitals are real war zones, where once again today, corridor after corridor, they were filled with children lying there with amputations, bleeding and with new injuries,” said Elder, who took the opportunity to stress the need to reach a ceasefire to reduce the emergency.
He stressed that the message to the Israeli authorities has been the same since the outbreak of the war, which is that a ceasefire will serve to achieve the objectives they are trying to achieve by force of arms. “A ceasefire prevents children from being killed, a ceasefire allows hostages to return home, a ceasefire allows aid to reach the Gaza Strip,” he argued.
Despite “all the broken promises” and even though “it may seem pointless to continue calling for a ceasefire,” Elder stressed that “the cost of silence is still greater,” and with each passing day without a ceasefire, more families are “torn apart” and more children “killed.” “The only humane solution is a ceasefire,” he said.
The spokesman took advantage of this point to recall the success of the humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip for the polio vaccination campaign. “We saw what can be done. We saw that more than half a million children were vaccinated against polio, so we know that it is possible for the attacks to stop and we see what can happen when this happens,” he argued.
For Elder, “there is no doubt that an entire generation of children, the entire future of Gaza, is under a very, very real threat and attack,” while recalling that, according to official figures, more than 14,000 children have died as victims of Israeli bombing, although he fears that the real figure could be even higher because there are still many bodies under the rubble that have yet to be located and identified.
HUMANITARIAN AID: AUGUST, THE WORST MONTH
As regards the delivery of humanitarian aid, Elder recalled that “more than three-quarters of Gaza is under some kind of evacuation order,” which means that people are forced to move around all the time, thereby losing access to the necessary humanitarian aid that could reach those areas.
In relation to the above and the apparent disregard for what is happening in the Palestinian enclave, Elder recalled how months ago the focus was on the number of trucks with humanitarian aid entering Gaza, and “now nobody seems to care” about this issue precisely when August was the month in which the least aid entered the Strip.
“In April and May, a lot of attention was paid to the number of trucks coming in, and now nobody seems to care. The reality is that there have been more challenges and more restrictions imposed in August,” Elder complained, referring here not only to direct blockages to the entry of aid, but also to delays and minor incidents on the roads that “may seem trivial, but put it all together and it is debilitating.”
Finally, Elder made a plea against the ban on journalists entering the Gaza Strip to report on what is happening in the enclave. “We must ask ourselves, why are they not allowed to enter?” asked the spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund.
“Much of what I see, much of what is happening to children (…) could and should be exposed to Western countries, allowing the international media to add to the voices of the very brave Palestinian press,” Elder added.
Hamas launched a series of attacks on Israeli territory on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping another 240 people, of whom just over 100 are believed to still be in Palestinian militia tunnels under the Gaza Strip.
In response to these attacks, the Israeli army launched a brutal military campaign targeting Hamas’s main structures in the Gaza Strip, but which has already claimed the lives of more than 41,500 people, mostly women and children. These indiscriminate attacks have motivated Hezbollah and other regional actors to support Hamas and against Israel.
Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel’s northern border have prompted the evacuation of thousands of people and led to clashes that by the end of last week had claimed half a thousand lives, but after the Israeli attacks on Beirut and other points in Lebanon, more than 600 more have died and thousands more have been injured.
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