Geneva, May 16 (RHC)-- The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) has called for an end to the “indiscriminate killing” campaign against Palestinians, especially children, in the Gaza Strip, raising the alarm at the dire situation caused by Israel’s genocidal war on the territory. 

In an interview with the U.S. broadcaster ABC, UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram said that she saw the “horrific” impact of fighting on children’s bodies during the time that she spent at hospitals in Gaza, including in the southern city of Rafah.

“I saw a nine-year-old girl who was clinging to life on a hospital bed in Rafah with major blast wounds down one side of her body, and when I met her, she had been that way 16 days because the medical ability in Gaza to repair those wounds was non-existent,” she added.  “We need to see an end to the fighting and the indiscriminate killing of civilians, especially children.”

Israel unleashed its brutal war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 35,091 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 78,827 others.

Despite warnings from international humanitarian actors, Israeli troops recently took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, Gaza's lifeline, and started carpet-bombing the city.

Israeli officials said it was the first step towards a full-scale assault on Rafah, home to around 1.5 million Palestinians who have been displaced due to the Gaza onslaught.  The Israeli attacks on Rafah further restricted aid delivery to the besieged Gaza amid acute shortages of fuel, food and clean water.

In an X post on Monday, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said restricted humanitarian access is a “matter of life or death” for people in Gaza.  It also underlined the need for safe passage of humanitarian assistance and aid workers to the Palestinian territory.

In another post, UNRWA warned over 150,000 pregnant women are facing “terrible sanitary conditions and health hazards” in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire.