NEW YORK / PNN /

Children have been killed, starved and frozen to death in the Gaza Strip, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“Children have been killed, starved and frozen to death. They have been maimed, orphaned, separated from their family,” Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said at a briefing to the Security Council on the plight of children in the Gaza Strip.

“A generation has been traumatized,” he added, while pointing out that “Conservative estimates indicate that over 17,000 children are without their families in Gaza. Some died before their first breath – perishing with their mothers in childbirth.”

“An estimated 150,000 pregnant women and new mothers are in desperate need of health services. Children have lost their schools and their education. Those with chronic illnesses have struggled to access the care they need, many unable to do so,” he said.

“Many have faced sexual violence. Girls, who have endured the additional indignity of no menstrual care, have been left exposed and vulnerable,” he noted.