About 14,000 Palestinian children have been martyred in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli war on the Strip in October 2023, according to data from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Catherine Russell, announced that more than 13,800 children in the Gaza Strip have been killed since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7.

Russell added, during a press conference in New York on Thursday, according to a statement by her organization: “Thousands have been infected, and there are thousands on the brink of starvation.”

Russell, who made a two-day visit to the Middle East, urged the parties to the conflict "to release all Israeli hostages, implement an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, facilitate unrestricted humanitarian access, and refrain from any further acts of violence against children."

In a related context, the United Nations Women’s Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment said that “one child is injured or dies every 10 minutes” in Gaza.

UNICEF spokeswoman Tess Ingram, who recently visited Gaza, said during a press conference in Geneva that what amazed her was “the number of wounded children she saw.”

“Not just in hospitals, but on the streets, in their temporary shelters, where they live their permanently changed lives,” she added.

In a related context, the United Nations Children's Fund said that newly displaced children in the southern Gaza Strip are receiving quantities of water far less than what is required to survive, and it expects the death of a larger number of children in the Strip in the coming days due to deprivation and disease.

The organization confirmed, in a statement published on its website: “Newly displaced children in the southern Gaza Strip receive only 1.5 to 2 liters of water per day, which is far less than the recommended requirements for survival.

It explained: According to humanitarian relief standards, the minimum amount of water needed in emergency situations is 15 liters, including drinking, washing and cooking water. The estimated minimum survival rate is only 3 liters per day.

UNICEF indicated that half of the internally displaced people in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza are children, and said that “obtaining sufficient quantities of clean water in Gaza is a matter of life and death.”