According to CCTV news, recently, CCTV reporters conducted an online interview with Adele Cordell, regional director of the Middle East and North Africa of the United Nations Children's Conference. Adele Kodell said that the conflict has already killed and injured a large number of children in the Gaza Strip, and the number of casualties is rising as the conflict intensifies. Many children are unaccompanied and displaced, living in great psychological trauma and shadow. She called on the international community to pay more attention to children and to step up humanitarian assistance.
CCTV reporter Xu Dezhi: According to UNICEF, what is the current situation of children in the Gaza Strip?
Adele Codell, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, UN Children**: Children in Gaza are in a very bad situation, using unsafe drinking water and facing waterborne diseases. Of course, they also don't have the food that children in ordinary families can usually eat, and food is one of the basic necessities that are currently missing. In addition, many of them have been traumatized by their own experiences, and many have witnessed the death of both parents and other family members or friends. As a result, there is no normal life for the children of the Gaza Strip at all.
Adele Kodell stressed that international humanitarian law stipulates that children have the right to life, the right to protection, access to food and basic services, but unfortunately this is not the case, with a large number of innocent children killed, injured and displaced. She called on the international community to put further pressure on all parties to significantly increase the supply of aid and vehicles to the Gaza Strip in order to protect the rights and interests of children in the Gaza Strip.
CCTV reporter Xu Dezhi: UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths recently said that due to the grave situation, material aid to the Gaza Strip can no longer be called a humanitarian operation. What else do you think UNICEF members can do to help organize and help these children in such cruel conditions?
Adele Cordell, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the United Nations Children**: Martin Griffiths, as the Emergency Relief Coordinator, says that because we first had difficulties securing the number of trucks that deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and we didn't even reach half of the number of trucks that we should have every day. In addition, supplies cannot be safely distributed in the Gaza Strip, we do not have enough fuel to drive all the trucks, and we do not have access to all areas. All of this suggests that we are not now in a coherent manner for humanitarian action.
Referring to the fact that on the 8th, a draft resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was again not adopted in the Security Council's vote, Kodell said that this means that the opportunity to move forward with humanitarian relief on a regular basis has been missed again. And the survival of the people of Gaza, especially children, will continue to be seriously threatened.
Edited by Li Yilinzi.