CGTN Europe spoke to Tess Ingram, UNICEF Communication Specialist
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00:00Tess Ingram is from UNICEF, the UN's agency for children.
00:05The situation currently is beyond our imaginations, it's even beyond description in so many ways.
00:11This is the worst it has been the entire time, any moment throughout this conflict.
00:17We're now at more than nine weeks of a blockade that has prevented anything,
00:22a drop of water, a grain of wheat from entering the Gaza Strip,
00:26and that has undone all of the good work that humanitarian agencies were able to do during the ceasefire
00:31and push children back into an absolute hellscape of suffering.
00:36Not only are they dodging bombs and bullets with the fighting resuming,
00:40but they are also being deprived of the basics that they need to survive.
00:44And so as a result, we're seeing diseases climb, we're seeing malnutrition increase,
00:48we're seeing children die from starvation related to that malnutrition.
00:53So we know that aid is waiting to get in.
00:56What needs to happen in order to get it into Gaza?
01:01This is a blockade that is being imposed by Israel, and we need them to lift that blockade.
01:07It's very simple. This is a man-made problem that can be rectified.
01:11And I think for all of us on the other side of that blockade,
01:14it is imperative on us as an international community to increase the pressure
01:19to ensure that this blockade is lifted, and ideally that there's a ceasefire reinstated.
01:24That is what we need to see for the children of Gaza.
01:27So you've talked a little bit about the health crisis children are facing,
01:31malnutrition, risk of starvation, you say,
01:34but what about their mental health and the difficulty of living in this kind of environment?
01:39It's a good question, and it's not something that we talk about enough,
01:44because it's harder to see, but it is there.
01:47And these invisible scars are impacting children in terrible ways.
01:52We've got mental health practitioners on the ground who are working with children every day
01:56to try and provide them with the support that they need.
01:59But it's very hard to do that while the trauma continues and while it compounds every day.
02:06A child is exposed to another traumatic event,
02:08whether that's running for their lives from a bombardment,
02:11being buried underneath rubble, or simply not having enough to eat.
02:16What action does UNICEF want to see at this stage from the international community?
02:22We need world leaders to act.
02:26I think if the images that are coming out of Gaza now,
02:29the facts that we know about the situation and how it is resulting in the preventable death of children,
02:36if that is not enough to motivate world leaders to continue to use their influence
02:43to change the situation in the Gaza Strip, then that is a stain on all of our conscience.
02:49The time is now, and we need to make sure that, at a minimum,
02:52the basics that children need to survive are entering Gaza.
02:56And Israel suggesting today a plan involving shutting down the existing aid distribution system in Gaza
03:03and taking it over somehow, how might that work?
03:09Look, the details of the plan that's been presented to the humanitarian community
03:14would only really increase suffering.
03:18That's our position.
03:19We believe that forcing people to enter a militarised area to access rations of aid is not the correct approach.
03:28It does not align with the humanitarian principles of how aid should be provided,
03:33particularly to vulnerable people, say, for example, severely injured children who cannot travel.