Exhausted Gazans wake from another night of Israeli bombing: UN aid teams
Israel’s renewed bombing campaign and intensifying ground operation in Gaza are reversing gains achieved during the brief ceasefire, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
According to Gazan health authorities, around 600 people have been killed this week in bombing raids, including 200 women and children.
Speaking from inside the devastated enclave, Sam Rose from UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, said that strikes happened “across the Gaza Strip”.
“We know how this goes if the ceasefire is not restored, this means large-scale loss of life, damage to infrastructure, property, increased risk of infectious disease and massive, massive trauma for the one million children and for the two million civilians who live in Gaza. And it’s worse this time because people are already exhausted.”
Mr. Rose’s comments came as the Israeli Defense Minister reportedly issued instructions for further occupation of parts of Gaza, warning of partial annexation unless further hostages were released.
The UNRWA senior officer also warned that an estimated one million people in March will likely go without rations and that six of the 25 bakeries that the UN World Food Programme supports have already closed.
Running to bomb shelters, nothing new for Ukraine’s schoolchildren
To Ukraine, where school lessons are commonly cut short by air raid sirens in the three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion began – just one of the daily realities of life for children in the war-torn country – the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Friday.
Latest data from OHCHR indicates more than 1,600 recorded attacks on Ukrainian schools until the end of last year.
These strikes are part of a legacy of death, injury, disability and family separation, said Danielle Bell, OHCHR Representative in Ukraine:
“We spoke to a mother whose child’s hair had turned gray because he hadn’t slept properly for a year because of air raid sirens going off every night in his home.”
A new report from OHCHR details how children living in the four regions annexed by Russia – in breach of international law – are forced to follow “military-patriotic training” and war propaganda.
Children are also completely denied access to education in the Ukrainian language and have been designated Russian citizens.
UN human rights monitors warn that vast areas of Ukraine are now littered with landmines and explosive remnants of war.
As of last December, around 737,000 children had been internally displaced by the war. A further 1.7 million are refugees, many of them separated from a parent, usually their father.
2024 was deadliest year on record for migrants: IOM
Last year was the deadliest on record for migrants, the UN migration agency IOM said on Friday, in an appeal for greater international assistance to stop the preventable tragedy.
At least 8,938 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2024, according to data compiled by IOM.
The UN agency insists that the tragically high number of people on the move dying is “unacceptable and preventable. Behind every number is a human being, someone for whom the loss is devastating,” it said, noting that most regions in the world saw record deaths of migrants.
This included Asia (with nearly 2,800 recorded dead), Africa (with more than 2,200) and the Mediterranean Sea, where at least 2,450 people drowned trying to reach Europe.
Daniel Johnson, UN News
Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved.
Source of original article: United Nations (news.un.org). Photo credit: UN. The content of this article does not necessarily reflect the views or opinion of Global Diaspora News (www.globaldiasporanews.com).
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