Teens in Gaza hoping to be killed to end their "nightmare": UN

A spokesman for the UN children’s agency said on Tuesday that the situation in the war-torn Gaza is so bad that teens are increasingly expressing their desire to be quickly murdered in order to end the “nightmare”.

“The unspeakable is regularly said in Gaza,” said James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.

Speaking by video message from Rafah in southern Gaza to media in Geneva, he said the agency had a discussion with teenagers on Monday.

He claimed that several of them expressed a desire to die because they were “so desperate for this nightmare to end.”

According to Israeli official estimates, the conflict started with Hamas’s October 7 strikes in Israel, which claimed roughly 1,160 lives, most of them civilians.

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Around 250 captives were also taken by Hamas operatives; of these, Israel estimates that 130 are currently being held in Gaza, 33 of whom are thought to be dead.

The health ministry reports that at least 32,333 individuals have died in Gaza as a result of Israel’s retaliatory attack against Hamas, the majority of them were women and children.

A growing number of pleas are being made to Israel to open up more border crossings and to cease impeding the flow of aid through Palestinian territory, as the UN has warned that a famine is imminent in Gaza.

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The Israelis “have a right to control. They inspect every single gram, litre, kilo of whatever goes into Gaza,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency, told reporters.

“But they cannot say that once it’s inside, we leave it with you. They must create this enabling environment that allows us to move it around.”

“We need to dispel this notion that their obligation with getting aid in somehow stops with getting a few trucks, a fraction of what is needed, across the border,” he said.

“That is not correct.”

Elder meanwhile pointed out that the Israelis had denied a quarter of the 40 mission requests to the north since the beginning of the month.

“Now there is an existing old crossing point that could be used in the north 10 minutes from where those people are putting their hands to their mouth pleading for food,” he said, referring to the Erez Crossing.

“10 minutes. Open that and we could turn this humanitarian crisis around in a matter of days. But it remains closed.”

“Let’s be clear, life-saving aid is being obstructed, lives are being lost, dignity is being denied.”

(With agency inputs)