Israel’s continued restrictions on aid deliveries leave Palestinian children particularly vulnerable, aid groups warn.
Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian child in northern Gaza as hundreds of thousands of families across the bombarded enclave continue to reel from Israel’s continued restrictions on shelter supplies and other humanitarian aid.
A medical source at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told media on Thursday that the child – identified as Youssef Ahmed al-Shandaghli – was killed by Israeli forces in the Jabalia an-Nazla area in the north of the territory.
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The exact circumstances surrounding the boy’s killing were not immediately clear.
It comes as Israel has continued to carry out attacks across Gaza despite a United States-brokered ceasefire agreement that came into force in October, killing more than 400 Palestinians and injuring many more.
Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries to the enclave have also worsened already dire conditions in the enclave, which has been largely reduced to rubble as a result of Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people there.
On Thursday, local media outlets reported that a young girl died in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp due to extreme cold.
Separately, the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza also reported that its teams recovered the bodies of a mother and child after a fire broke out in a tent sheltering displaced people in the Yarmouk area of central Gaza City.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families are residing in overcrowded displacement camps and makeshift shelters across the strip because their homes have been destroyed in Israel’s more than two-year-long war.
The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have urged the Israeli authorities to allow tents, blankets and other supplies into Gaza to help families withstand dangerous winter conditions.
But Israel has ignored the calls to lift its restrictions on aid deliveries, despite growing international condemnation that its policy is putting Palestinian lives at risk.
Earlier this week, the UN’s child rights agency (UNICEF) said at least five Palestinian children had died in Gaza in December due to a lack of adequate shelter.
That includes a seven-year-old Palestinian boy named Ata Mai who drowned to death in a makeshift displacement camp northwest of Gaza City on December 27 amid heavy rainfall, winds and freezing temperatures.
“Ata went missing in the afternoon and, despite search and rescue efforts supported by heavy machinery, his body was only recovered hours later,” UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa regional director Edouard Beigbeder said in a statement.
“Children in Gaza have endured enough and have the right to protection and safe shelter; all efforts must prioritize meeting this essential need,” Beigbeder added.
“Furthermore, the urgent and large-scale entry of a full range of life-saving and life-sustaining supplies is required, including items that have previously been denied or restricted.”
The warnings also come as Israel moved on Thursday to implement a ban on international aid groups working to support Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Israel has revoked the operating licences of 37 aid groups for failing to comply with new government regulations that require them to provide detailed information on their staff members, funding and operations.
UN officials have denounced the ban as “the latest in a pattern of unlawful restrictions on humanitarian access” in the occupied Palestinian territory, while the targeted organisations have warned that they will be forced to halt their life-saving work.
