GENEVA — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday condemned the devastating toll of Israel’s war in Gaza, urging an immediate ceasefire to halt what it described as “unprecedented” violence against children.

“For nearly two years now, children have paid the heaviest price in this crisis,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires told reporters during a UN press briefing in Geneva.

He said “an average of one child (is) either killed or maimed every 17 minutes,” calling the figure “unacceptable” and “staggering.”

Marking the second anniversary of the war, Pires said children in Gaza continue to suffer extreme physical and psychological trauma, with many orphaned, displaced multiple times, and exposed to “horrors that no child should ever have to look at or live.”

While welcoming US-led peace efforts, including President Donald Trump’s recently proposed 20-point Gaza plan, Pires warned that bombardments and airstrikes persist in both northern and southern parts of the enclave.

The UNICEF spokesperson also raised alarm over restrictions on humanitarian aid, saying that essential medical supplies — including incubators and ventilators for premature babies — remain blocked.

“We’re talking about children sharing oxygen masks in order to stay alive,” Pires said, noting that one in five babies in Gaza is now born prematurely.

The agency is still awaiting clearance to transport critical medical equipment from northern to southern Gaza, despite repeated appeals.

Malnutrition is rapidly worsening, with over 10,000 children diagnosed with acute malnutrition in the past two months, and 2,400 currently receiving treatment for severe acute malnutrition in Gaza City. “Without access to care, these cases could turn fatal,” Pires warned.

“The disproportionate response that followed (October 2023), which today continues, needs to end — and it needs to end now,” he said.

Since October 2023, Israeli bombardment has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians — most of them women and children — leaving Gaza in ruins and driving mass displacement, starvation, and the spread of disease. — Agencies