Palestinian medical officials say the death toll of around 170 in Gaza included between 24 to 34 children. In a statement, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child warned the conflict has had a “devastating and lasting impact” on children, with “deep trauma and other psychological effects on children on both sides of the border.” At least one Gaza school was completely destroyed by Israeli shelling. One young Palestinian boy reported witnessing his brother’s decapitation when metal from an Israeli bombing tore off the victim’s head as he slept. Diane Araki, the chief of the UNICEF field office in Gaza, said she had witnessed a number of children suffering.
Diane Araki: “I was seeing children who have been injured from the conflict and children on ventilators, children bruised, and their bruised bodies, and they were very much suffering.”