UNICEF: Infants in Gaza are living in terror and sharing oxygen masks.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) stated that Israel has repeatedly refused to allow the transfer of incubators from an evacuated hospital in northern Gaza, increasing the pressure on overcrowded hospitals in the south, where infants share oxygen masks and beds.

The organization pointed out today, Tuesday, that the Israeli war on Gaza, which has entered its third year, has exacerbated malnutrition and stress among pregnant women, raising the number of premature and underweight children, who now make up about one-fifth of the births in the sector, according to the World Health Organization.

The Israeli attack on the city of Gaza in the north last month led to the closure of most hospitals there, resulting in increased overcrowding in the few hospitals that remain open in the south.

James Elder, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said that the acute shortage of vital equipment and devices forces mothers to share their children’s oxygen masks and beds.

He added from Gaza, "In one of the children's department rooms, there were 3 children and 3 mothers on one bed, with one source of oxygen; the mothers were taking turns on the oxygen so that each child could get 20 minutes... this is the level of desperation that mothers have reached now."

Elder noted that attempts to transfer incubators from an evacuated hospital in the north were rejected 4 times, confirming that vital equipment still exists in the closed hospitals in the northern sector.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states that Israel has rejected or obstructed 45% of 8,000 humanitarian missions inside Gaza since October 7, 2023.

UNICEF called for the evacuation of sick and premature children remaining in hospitals in northern Gaza. The World Health Organization transferred three of them last week to a hospital in the south, but stated that one of them died before the mission began, clarifying that only 14 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially operational.

In the same context, Ricardo Pérez, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said that children in Gaza are living in terror that no child should face, considering that Israeli violence over the past two years has resulted in the killing or injury of one child every 17 minutes, which he described as "a shocking and unacceptable figure."

Pérez added that children are either orphaned or forced to be displaced multiple times, emphasizing that the terror they have faced should not be experienced by any other child, and that Israel's repeated refusal to allow humanitarian aid increases the scale of the crisis.

United Nations data indicates that the Israeli genocide since October 8, 2023, has resulted in more than 67,000 martyrs and 169,000 injured in Gaza, most of whom are children and women, while famine has led to the deaths of 460 Palestinians, including 154 children.