Kilometer-long queues of more than three hours in Gaza to go to the bathroom or get cooking gas

Displaced people from the war in Gaza, especially children and adolescents, queue for up to three hours to be able to use a bathroom or get gas to cook food, taking advantage of the truce agreed between Israel and Hamas, he reported this Tuesday by video call from Gaza UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.

“I have seen queues of more than a kilometer of people in the rain waiting to get gas for cooking and that half have had to go home empty-handed,” he described to the press accredited to the UN in Geneva.

Elder, who arrived just before the beginning of the truce last Wednesday, revealed that the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza is “significant, but insufficient” and that more than four days of pause in bombing will be needed to care for all the people. needy.

In his testimony, he assured that the situation is “much worse than imagined,” especially in the south, where there are more than 1.8 million displaced people who had barely received help in more than six weeks of hostilities. “You can see the devastation, trauma and stress on people's stunned faces, especially children,” she said.

He maintained that a permanent ceasefire is “fundamental” for the future of the Gazan children who will survive this war and who have been orphaned, traumatized and have current living conditions that “are not adequate for their recovery.”

“They will only be able to recover when they receive the support they need and their lives begin to return to normal and this only begins with lasting peace,” said Elder, who recalled that at least one million Gazan children experience mental health trauma and stress.

“I spoke to a seven-year-old boy who had lost his father, his mother and his twin brother and I asked his aunt, 'why does he close his eyes when he talks?' and he told me: 'He is so afraid of forgetting what his parents and brother were like that he closes his eyes so as not to lose them in his mind like he did in real life.' “The truce has to become a permanent ceasefire because if it doesn't, we will be back to square one,” he said.