UN Child Rights Committee expresses concern over high number of child deaths in Gaza

The UN Child Rights Committee (CRC) today expressed deep concern at the high number of children in Gaza killed, maimed, injured, missing, displaced, orphaned and subjected to famine, malnutrition and disease, as a result of Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks.

In a statement issued in Geneva, the Committee urged “Israel to immediately cease the killing and injuring of Palestinian children in Gaza, to ensure safe and unrestricted humanitarian access to and within the Gaza Strip, and to allow entry of all construction materials necessary for Palestinian families to rebuild homes and civilian and public infrastructure.”

It urged Israel to immediately end the arbitrary and administrative detention of children, to release all Palestinian children who have been arbitrarily detained, and to abolish the institutionalised system of detention and the use of torture and ill-treatment against them at all stages of the judicial procedure.