Catherine Russel - an average of 28 children have been killed each day. The equivalent of an entire classroom of children. Consider that for a moment. A whole classroom of children killed each day for nearly two years.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council that an average of
28 children have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 21 months—a rate equivalently described as “an entire classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years”
245712. Russell highlighted that
over 17,000 children have reportedly been killed and
33,000 injured during this period, underscoring the devastating impact of the conflict on Gaza's children
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She stressed, “These children are not combatants. They are being killed and maimed as they line up for lifesaving food and medicine,” emphasizing the innocence of those affected and the indiscriminate dangers they face
54. Russell implored, “Consider that for a moment: a whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years”
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The situation was further described as one where
children are paying the highest price amid widespread famine, medical collapse, and continued bombardment, with UN officials warning there is “no safe place for civilians anywhere in Gaza”
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Russell's remarks served as a stark call for urgent action, drawing attention to the ongoing and relentless toll on Gaza’s youngest and most vulnerable population
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The daily loss of children in Gaza is historically unprecedented compared to other recent conflicts. According to UN and humanitarian organizations:
- In just four months, at least 12,300 children were killed in Gaza, surpassing the number of children killed in all conflicts worldwide—12,193—during four years from 2019 to 202215.
- In the first three weeks of the conflict (October 2023), more children were reported killed in Gaza than the annual number of children killed across the world's conflict zones in each of the past three years5.
- Over the past year, more than 11,000 children have been killed in Gaza, while in the first 2.5 years of the Syria conflict, the number was about 4,700 children per year (an average of roughly 394 children per month in Syria, vs. nearly 1,000 per month or more in Gaza)2.
- Oxfam and other agencies analyzed data and found “the number of children killed in Gaza far exceeds any single year for children killed in all conflicts”23.
- The average daily civilian death rate in Gaza (across all ages) is higher than in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, or Ukraine in recent decades47. Specifically, “many more children have been killed in Gaza every day” compared to these conflicts7.
Humanitarian agencies and the UN have thus labelled the rate and scale of child deaths in Gaza as the
highest by far among modern conflicts
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