UNICEF spokesperson stated that with Israel having declared the north to be hostile ground, “those who remain are to be branded as suspects.”
The UN Children’s Fund’s spokesperson, James Elder, has warned that there are no safe places for Palestinians ordered to leave Gaza City, only “places of death.”
“Nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip. Yet, today, a further 200,000 civilians have been warned to leave Gaza City, in addition to more than 400,000 people who have been forced to move south,” Elder told a Geneva press briefing via video link from Gaza on Friday.
He stressed that the “logic imposed on people in Gaza is both brutal and contradictory.”
UNICEF’s James Elder said the situation in Gaza’s barely functioning hospitals is “absolutely out of control.”
Patients are lying on the floor or in the streets.
UNICEF is rushing life-saving support and supplies to medical facilities now – but so much more is needed. pic.twitter.com/LSpa3LZYZy
— UNICEF Ireland (@unicefireland) October 1, 2025
Elder stated that with Israel having declared the north to be hostile ground, “those who remain are to be branded as suspects.”
“Let’s be clear: the issuance of a general or blanket evacuation order to civilians does not mean that those who remain behind lose their protection as civilians,” he added.
The “so-called safe zones” in the south “are also places of death,” Elder explained with Al-Mawasi, now one of the most densely populated places on earth, now “grotesquely overcrowded and stripped of the essentials of survival.”
Hospitals ‘Overflowing’
In Gaza City, one hospital, which was shelled last week, sees 60 to 80 children per day being admitted for malnutrition and other illnesses. The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the hospital “is overflowing,” Elder said.
Gaza City remains home to tens of thousands of children, he emphasized.
“New mothers and vulnerable newborns are lying on the floor in hospital corridors.
I sat with 3 premature babies sharing a single oxygen tank. They share it 20 minutes each: the other 2 children cry whilst the third child gets the oxygen.”
– @1james_elder, @unicef from #Gaza pic.twitter.com/UZybME0UKm
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) October 3, 2025
“Shoeless children push grandparents in wheelchairs around rubble. Amputee children struggle through the dust. Mothers carry children whose skin is bleeding from rashes. Children shudder at the relentless airstrikes. And children gaze skyward tracking the fire from helicopters and quadcopters,” Elder continued.
“The question I am asked everywhere in Gaza City – from women, from the elderly, and from children – is: ‘Where can I go that will be safe’? And the answer remains the same after almost two years: Nowhere,” the UNICEF spokesperson said.
He stressed that “the very notion of ‘safe zones’ in the south is farcical — bombs are dropped from the sky with chilling predictability.”
Children ‘Paralysed, Burnt’
Schools designated as temporary shelters are regularly reduced to rubble, tents pitched in empty lots offer no protection from shrapnel and are frequently engulfed in fire from air attacks, he stated.
Elder said he met children at the Nasser Hospital who have been paralysed, burnt, or had limbs amputated following direct hits on tents, all at approximately two in the morning.
Update | Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al Balah announces that Four Palestinian children succumbed to severe malnutrition and starvation caused by the ongoing Israeli blockade and genocide. https://t.co/cCAESCK0ud pic.twitter.com/hqgvcUR7DL
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 3, 2025
“A few days earlier, at Al Aqsa hospital, I met many children who had been shot by quadcopters,” he stressed.
“When the world adjusts and normalizes this level of violence and deprivation, something is profoundly broken. The strength of international law doesn’t lie in words on paper, but in the resolve of countries to uphold it.”
Premature Babies Sharing Oxygen Source
At the same time, the situation for mothers and newborns has never been worse, he emphasized, with the hospital corridores at Nasser Hospital lined with women who have just given birth.
“In six missions to Gaza, I have never seen it like this. New mothers and vulnerable newborns lying on the floor,” he stated.
Today, @WHO transferred three critically ill newborn babies from Al-Helou Hospital in #Gaza City to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah to receive lifesaving care that could no longer be provided at Al-Helou, including for one infant on critical oxygen therapy.
A fourth baby, who… pic.twitter.com/PGsNQEA9qQ
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 3, 2025
Elder described three premature babies sharing a single oxygen source with “each child breathing for twenty minutes, before giving way to the next.”
He emphasized that until all restrictions are removed on the entry and delivery of humanitarian aid, the provision of lifesaving aid “will continue to be woefully inadequate.”
Over 66,000 Killed
Since reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, Israel has continued its bloody aerial bombardment across the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding thousands of Palestinians.
Starting on October 7, 2023, the Israeli military, with American support, launched a genocidal war against the people of Gaza. This campaign has so far resulted in the deaths of more than 66,000 Palestinians, with more than 168,000 wounded. The vast majority of the population has been displaced, and the destruction of infrastructure is unprecedented since World War II. Thousands of people are still missing.
Palestinian boy Mohammed Al-Yazji was rescued from the rubble of his destroyed home in Gaza City. Covered in dust and bruises, he reassured his rescuer in a trembling voice, saying ‘I’m okay.’ pic.twitter.com/WpUe8C4iuN
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 3, 2025
In addition to the military assault, the Israeli blockade has caused a man-made famine, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians—mostly children—with hundreds of thousands more at risk.
Despite widespread international condemnation, little has been done to hold Israel accountable. The nation is currently under investigation for genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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