Geneva, April 19 (RHC)-- A spokesman for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) says more than 14,000 Palestinian children have so far been killed in Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

“Reports are now that more than 14,000 girls and boys have been killed in Gaza. Perhaps we should say that slowly. Fourteen thousand. Perhaps we should do something,” James Elder said in a post on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) on Friday.

He called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and warned against an expected invasion of the southern city of Rafah, where nearly more than half of Gaza's population of 2.4 have sought shelter from Israeli strikes elsewhere in Gaza.
“Surely that 'something' is not a military offensive in Rafah. Ceasefire. Now,” Elder said.

His social media post came in response to another post by an American journalist, who works for The New York Times, in which she referred to a CNN report on an Israeli strike that killed eight children while they were playing football.  “Every 10 minutes a child is killed or injured in Gaza, per reporter Jeremy Diamond,” Anne Barnard said in her post.

Israel launched its brutal US-backed war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the Hamas resistance movement carried out its historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the latest genocidal offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 34,012 Palestinians and injured nearly 76,833 others.