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The 'horrendous toll' on children caught in the Israel-Gaza conflict_我的网站

A |     While extensive, international negotiations have now led to the release of four hostages captured by Hamas, scores of foreign nationals in Gaza, including as many as 600 Americans, are still being blocked by the U.S.-designated terrorist group from crossing into Egypt, according to Biden administration officials."To date, at least, Hamas has blocked them from leaving, showing once again its total disregard for civilians of any kind who are stuck in Gaza," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a televised interview Sunday.On Monday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller clarified that the U.S. now assessed that after weeks of negotiations with Egypt and Israel aimed at securing safe passage for the Americans, only Hamas stood in the way."We do believe that Egypt is ready to process American citizens if they can make it to Egyptian authorities. Hamas just has to stop blocking their exit," Miller said.Miller also said that while U.S. officials were not in direct communication with Hamas, they have been urging Hamas to step aside in messages sent through "a number of partners."The Biden administration has been working since soon after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel to reopen the Rafah gate -- the sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt -- in order to move aid into the area and allow foreign nationals to leave.While a limited number of trucks carrying food, water and medicine were able to enter Gaza for the first time on Saturday, so far none of the foreign nationals has been allowed to leave.Miller explained that "a number of civilians, some American citizens" flocked to the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing when it was first opened, but none were able to leave because Hamas "was there blocking anyone from coming through the gate from the Gaza side out to the Egyptian side."According to U.S. officials, the Egyptian government has also been hesitant to allow civilians to exit Gaza through the Rafah gate because of the country's intense concern over security threats posed by terrorist activities on the Sinai Peninsula.Egyptian officials are also likely eager to avoid the optics of thousands of people pouring across the border from Gaza -- wary the country might appear complicit in what its president and other Middle Eastern leaders have said would be an "ethnic cleansing" of Gaza.While securing Egypt's cooperation in eventually facilitating the departure of American citizens would be a diplomatic achievement for the administration, it does not yet appear that Cairo has signaled it will extend the same opportunity to the parents, children, siblings, and partners of U.S. nationals in Gaza.Miller said it was still the administration's goal that the immediate family members of American citizens crossing through the Rafah gate would be allowed to depart as well, but that it was "an ongoing conversation" with Egypt.With a potential Israeli ground incursion looming, the already dire circumstances facing Americans and their loved ones inside Gaza may soon get even worse.Abood Okal, a 36-year-old American, has been stranded in Gaza with his wife and 1-year-old son since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, told his lawyer, Sammy Nabulsi, that the family has been huddled in a home with 40 other people, sleeping on the floor, sharing meager amounts of food, and that for an entire day, they had been forced to drink salt water to survive.Nabulsi said in an interview with ABC News Live on Monday that Okal's family had been instructed by the State Department to go to the Rafah crossing four different times, but on each occasion no one had been allowed to pass through the gate."I think the holdup is the United States isn't focused on this effort at all," said Nabulsi. "It's unacceptable to me. It should be unacceptable to every single American citizen is this entire country."Although the State Department asserts that Hamas is preventing them from fleeing to safety, Miller said Americans stranded in Gaza are "in a different situation" from the around 220 individuals the Israeli Defense Forces believes are still being held hostage by the group."I am not at all trying to minimize the situation," Miller said, acknowledging Americans like Okal and his family are facing "deplorable" circumstances and vowing that U.S. officials are "working intensively' to get them out.The administration has not provided any number or estimate of how many of the 500 to 600 Americans thought to be trapped in Gaza have reached out to the State Department for help."We have a list of Americans who are registered with us, and when we have any information about the possibility of transiting outside of Gaza, we're providing it to all of them," Miller said.。    The Israel-Hamas conflict is taking a "horrendous toll" on families, humanitarian organizations like UNICEF decried this week, amid reports of the slaughter and kidnapping of children and attacks on civilian infrastructure that have killed, injured or displaced the most vulnerable.In the days since Hamas' surprise assault on Israel, images from both regions have shown crying children running through the street and cowering in bomb shelters after airstrikes. In Gaza, the bodies of dead children killed in shelling were covered in blankets and carried by their fathers in funeral processions. In the kibbutz of Be'eri, one of the largest in Israel, more than 100 bodies of Israeli citizens were discovered on Monday, with women, children and the elderly "brutally butchered," the Israel Defense Forces said. Israeli children have also been among those reported kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.

A special edition of "20/20" at 10 p.m., Wed., Oct. 11, on ABC looks at life under threat in Israel and Gaza and how this attack is different from what we’ve seen in this region in the past.

"Nothing justifies the killing, maiming or abducting of children -- grave rights violations which UNICEF wholeheartedly condemns. Yet less than 72 hours after the outbreak of horrific violence in Israel, reports indicate that grave rights violations against children are rampant," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement on Monday. "Many children have been killed or injured, while countless others have been exposed to the violence."According to Palestinian authorities, 900 people have been killed in Gaza so far -- including 260 children and 230 women. The number of children killed in Israel is unclear; at least 900 people have died and 2,600 others have been injured, officials said, though did not specify how many were children. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech Monday that among the "atrocities" committed by Hamas, children have been "executed with the rest of their families."In remarks at the White House Tuesday, President Joe Biden described "Hamas' bloodthirstiness" as reminiscent of ISIS rampages -- including "stomach-churning reports of babies being killed."At least 100 civilians and soldiers have also been taken hostage by Hamas militants, Israeli officials said. Hamas leaders on Monday threatened to begin killing hostages one by one and filming the executions if their demands are not met.Among those abducted were 12- and 16-year-old brothers, their mother told ABC News. The woman, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said the boys were abducted Saturday by Hamas militants who burst into a safe room at their father's home on a kibbutz near the Gaza border."I want the world to demand the release of those innocent civilians. I want these children and women and babies back home, and I want my children back home," the mother said. "I can't take a shower without thinking of them being held hostage in some dirty pit somewhere. I can't eat, I can't sleep. I don't think human beings treat people like this. I'm sorry. I want the world to know, to demand those hostages to be returned to their homes."In response to the assault, Israel on Monday carried out a "complete siege," cutting off power and blocking food and water from being delivered to the Gaza Strip -- where, according to the CIA, nearly 40% of the population of 2 million is under the age of 15.UNICEF is "extremely alarmed" about those measures, spokesperson James Elder said at a press briefing Tuesday in Geneva."This will add another layer of suffering to the existing catastrophe faced by families in Gaza," Elder said. "Depriving children of access to food and essential services puts their lives at risk, as do attacks on civilian areas and infrastructure."According to UNICEF, 80% of those who live in the Gaza Strip rely on some form of humanitarian assistance.The conflict has led to "grave humanitarian consequences," Lynn Hastings, a humanitarian coordinator for the Gaza Strip for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, while calling for all parties to abide by international humanitarian law."Civilians, especially children, medical facilities, humanitarian personnel health workers, and journalists must be protected," Hastings said in a statement Tuesday. "Captured civilians must be released immediately and unconditionally."UNICEF has also called on all parties to protect children from harm, in accordance with international humanitarian law."I remind all parties that in this war, as in all wars, it is children who suffer first and suffer most," Russell said.。

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