Geneva: Palestinian civilians in densely-populated Gaza have no place to hide from Israels military offensive and children are paying the heaviest price, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
There is literally no safe place for civilians, Jens Laerke, spokesperson of the UN Office for Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), told a news briefing in Geneva.
Nearly 600 people have been killed in the coastal enclave, which has an estimated 4,500 people per square kilometre, Laerke said. The priority for aid agencies was protecting civilians and evacuating and treating the wounded.
Nearly 500 homes have been destroyed by Israeli air strikes and 100,000 people have sought shelter in schools of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), where they are in need of food, water and mattresses, he said.
Twenty-nine Israelis, 27 of them soldiers, have died.
But the overwhelming majority of people killed so far in the conflict are Palestinians, including 121 Gaza children under the age of 18 who make up one-third of the total civilian casualties, Juliette Touma of the UN Childrens Fund (Unicef) said.
More than 900 Palestinian children are also reported to have been injured, according to Unicef.
According to an assessment by aid workers on ground at least 107,000 children need psycho-social support for the trauma they are experiencing such as death, injury or loss of their homes, Laerke said.
More than 1.2 million people in the enclave have no water or only limited access to water as power networks have been damaged or lack fuel for generators, he said.
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