JOHANNESBURG - The UN is labelling the Gaza ceasefire a deadly illusion.
According to UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, about 265 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire was announced.
He said this is an absurd and devastating number and warned that the risks to children in Gaza and the West Bank are still very real.
"During a period supposedly defined by restraint and protection, a child is killed, on average, every single day for more than eight months. Let us be clear about what this means. These children were not killed in a warzone. They were killed in their homes. They were killed in their schools. They were killed playing football. They were killed fishing. They were shot, they were bombed, they were struck by quadcopters," Elder said.
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Meanwhile, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher said it is not enough to silence the weapons.
"We must restore dignity. We cannot allow the summit of our ambition and our will to be a world where children have sufficient calories to survive and are spared constant bombing, yet remain hungry, bitten by rats, homeless and out of school," he said.