RAMALLAH / ANKARA, April 3 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- More than 39,000 Palestinian children have been orphaned by Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Ajansi reported.
“Some 39,384 children in Gaza have lost one or both parents after 534 days of the Israeli genocide,” the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said in a statement marking Palestinian Child’s Day, which falls on April 5.
It explained that around 17,000 children have lost both parents in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023.
“These children are living in tragic conditions, with many forced to take refuge in torn tents or destroyed homes, in a near-total absence of social care and psychological support,” it added.
“The Gaza Strip is suffering from the largest orphan crisis in modern history,” the statistics bureau said.
According to the statement, at least 17,954 children have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, including 274 newborn babies and 876 infants under one year old.
“Seventeen children also froze to death in the tents sheltering displaced people, and 52 others died of starvation and systematic malnutrition,” it added.
The bureau warned that 60,000 children face death due to malnutrition and looming famine in Gaza amid a deadly Israeli blockade on the enclave.
Children under the age of 18 make up around 43 per cent of the 5.5 million Palestinian population in both Gaza and the West Bank, it said.
Israel began a surprise aerial campaign on Gaza on March 18, and has since killed more than 1,160 people and injured over 2,700, shattering a January ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
More than 50,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israel's military onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.
-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU
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