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Children pay price of Gaza war

Other News Materials 15 January 2009 13:31 (UTC +04:00)

The United Nations Children's Fund [Unicef] says children are bearing the brunt of Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.

More than 300 children have been killed and hundreds more have been wounded so far in Israel's ongoing aerial and ground assault.

"Each day more children are being hurt, their small bodies wounded, their young lives shattered. This is tragic. This is unacceptable," Ann Veneman, Unicef's executive director, said in a statement.

"They are bearing the brunt of a conflict which is not theirs, reported Aljazeera.

"As fighting reaches the heart of heavily populated urban areas, the impact of lethal weapons will carry an even heavier toll on children."

Veneman said the war in Gaza and the resultant bloodshed could cause long-term psychological damage to children.

"The crisis in Gaza is singular in that children and their families have nowhere to escape, no refuge. The very thought of being trapped in a closed area is disturbing for adults in peace times," she said.

"What then goes through the mind of a child who is trapped in such relentless violence?"

Israel has said that it is trying to minimise civilian casualties as it targets Hamas fighters and their infrastructure, but Palestinian children are being subjected to harrowing experiences.

"I saw the soldier standing next to the shop. I looked for my mum and then he shot me. One bullet him my hand and the other went through my back and out through my stomach," Samar, a young girl, told Al Jazeera while recovering from her wounds at a Gaza hospital.

Amal, another young girl, wailed: "We have nothing to do with this, we don't fire rockets, we don't know what this war is about."

More than 40,000 preganant women and their unborn children were also believed to be at risk because Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals were unable to take them in.

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