UNICEF: 17,000 children have lost their parents since beginning of the war in Gaza

GAZA, Feb. 02 (YPA) -The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday it estimated that 17,000 children in Gaza were unaccompanied or have been separated from their families during the conflict, and that nearly all children in the enclave were thought to require mental health support.

“They present symptoms like extremely high levels of persistent anxiety and loss of appetite. They can’t sleep, they have emotional outbursts or they panic every time they hear a bombing,” said Jonathan Crick, UNICEF’S chief of communication for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

“Before this war, UNICEF was considering already that 500,000 children were already in need of mental health and psychosocial support in Gaza. Today, we estimate that almost all children are in need of that support, and that’s more than 1 million children,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the death toll resulting from the ongoing Israeli aggression on the enclave has climbed to 27,131 martyrs, the majority of whom are women and children. The number of injured individuals has surged to 66,287.

E.M