Gaza is worse than a graveyard for children: UNICEF

“At the start of this war, UNICEF said Gaza was a ‘graveyard for children and a living hell for everyone else.’ It has only gotten worse as the bombing and fighting have continued,” the statement read.

Elder, who just returned from a weeks-long mission in Gaza, warned of the severe repercussions of food, water and medicine shortages on children.

“[C]hildren in Gaza are now in danger from the sky, disease on the ground, and death from hunger and thirst,” Elder continued, adding that had never seen that level of devastation and despair anywhere else.

Elder told CNN’s Isa Soares Thursday that parents he’s been talking to in Gaza have realized hospitals are no longer an option for their children due to the continuous attacks that have made hospitals harder to reach.

“Most crises they impact children terribly because children are the most vulnerable, but most have about a casualty rate of children around 20%, this [Gaza conflict] is 40 [%],” he said.

“This is twice as lethal to children as many conflicts we’ve seen in the last 15 or 20 years.”

According to the latest statement on Friday by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which draws its numbers from sources in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Israeli attacks have killed almost 19,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 70% of whom were children and women.