( Middle East Monitor ) – In a statement to the UN General Assembly, Lisa Doughten from OCHA warned of the dire humanitarian situation in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, saying the besieged Strip ‘is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history’. ‘Each day 10 children are losing 1 or both of their legs,’ she said, adding that women are 3 times more likely to suffer miscarriages as a result of Israel’s bombing campaign.
Gaza is home to the largest number of amputee children in modern history, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday.
Director of the Financing and Partnerships Division of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Lisa Doughten, said women and children are hard-hit by the trauma of the war and each day ten children are losing one or both of their legs.
Video: “Gaza: ‘Everyday 10 children loose 1 or both legs’”
“Gaza is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history,” she said, also noting that women there are three times more likely to miscarry or die from childbirth. “We cannot claim ignorance to what is happening — nor can we afford to look away,” she emphasised, repeating calls for the Council and Member States to act, adding: “These atrocities must end.”
She warned that the systematic and permanent targeting of the health sector has deprived more than two million people in the Gaza Strip of receiving basic health services, where more than 50,000 pregnant women are deprived of maternity care.
Doughten’s full remarks were,
- “Humanitarian partners report that women and children are hard hit by the trauma of this war each day. According to UNRWA, 10 children are losing one or both of their legs. Gaza is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history. Women are three times more likely to miscarry and three times more likely to die from childbirth.
And yet, humanitarians are not giving up.
Madam President, we also remain deeply concerned about the worsening situation in the West Bank. Over the past year, Israeli military operations along with rampant settler violence and house demolitions have led to a sharp rise in fatalities, widespread destruction, and forced displacement.
Just last week, on October 4, 18 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in an airstrike on a residential building in the Tarm refugee camp. This was the single deadliest incident carried out by Israeli forces in the West Bank since OCHA began systematically documenting casualties in 2005.”
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