“There’s no place in Gaza that can offer respite to civilians, including children, and there is no place in Gaza that is safe,” Saieh told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.
“We are continuing to see children being killed in the most horrific ways imaginable. We’ve seen children – in the last few weeks and over the course of the last nine months – dismembered, their limbs ripped off by explosive weapons, and crushed by falling rubble… it is just relentless.”
Saieh noted that Save the Children estimates that more than 20,000 children in Gaza are unaccounted for.
“This includes children who are separated from their families and more than 4,000 who are under the rubble and presumed dead. It also includes children buried in unmarked graves and those detained and disappeared by Israeli forces. This is in addition to more than 14,000 children killed and thousands more maimed,” she said.
The spokeswoman emphasized that Israeli attacks, such as the recent bombing of a UNRWA school in Nuseirat, make the delivery of humanitarian aid “almost impossible”.
“The number one obstacle to delivering aid right now is safety. Save the Children and other organizations rely on the safety of schools and camps to deliver any humanitarian assistance,” she said.
“Over the past nine months, we’ve seen more than 270 aid workers killed, the majority of them Palestinian. We have not received any assurances that aid operations and workers will be guaranteed any sort of safety, and we continue to see immense restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Supplies are being obstructed from entering the Gaza Strip,” she said.
“What we need is a ceasefire. What we need is for countries to stop supplying weapons that are fueling this crisis.”