UNICEF committed to staying in Gaza amid ongoing war

Tess Duncan, a UNICEF spokesperson, says Gaza’s health facilities remain severely underequipped as they struggle to treat children who are sick, injured and malnourished.

“I visited four hospitals in the last five days, and I can tell you that every medical director has told me about the impact of the lack of resources and the lack of staff,” Duncan told Al Jazeera from outside the Kuwaiti Hospital in Gaza’s Rafah district.

“They’re running at four times capacity. Children are dying due to infections. Children are dying from malnutrition. There’s just not enough staff and resources to go around. … That’s why we have to rush this aid in, and that’s why we need a ceasefire,” she said.

After the Israeli attack on the World Central Kitchen aid convoy on April 1, UNICEF and other UN agencies suspended their operations in Gaza for 48 hours, but it is now back to “full operations”, Duncan tells Al Jazeera.

“We’ve been here in Gaza for decades, and we’re not going anywhere,” she said from Rafah. “We’re going to stay here during the fighting, stay here as the guns fall silent and then help the children of Gaza to rebuild once there finally is peace.”

“But, of course, we can’t do that if it’s not safe,” she added, “so we need safety assurances from Israel that if we go on a mission, we’re not going to be killed.”

While the entry into Gaza of more aid convoys is “good news”, Duncan said, there are still serious challenges to transporting such aid to those most in need due to ongoing violence, collapsed infrastructure, travel restrictions and a shortage of fuel and vehicles.

“The obstacles are many, but we’re still doing our best in these really difficult circumstances to bring food and water and medicine and nutrition treatments to the vulnerable that need it,” she said.

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