UNICEF spokesperson James Elder is an Australian who has been working in conflict zones for 20 years – and is currently on the ground in Gaza.
Even with two decades of experience doing the job, he has never seen he level of intensity and severity of suffering by children before.
Listen to the episode of The Briefing here:
UNICEF says of all the Gaza casualties – just over 40 per cent are children: a number not normally seen in other conflicts.
In this episode of The Briefing, Katrina Blowers finds out from Mr Elder what life is like right now for children on the ground in Gaza.
Mr Elder said he went to Gaza “expecting the worse” and what he was worse than he could imagine.
“It gets worse every day, as hard as that is to conjure,” he said.
“I’ve not seen the wounds of war as severe as this to see hospitals that were literal war zones. To see dozens of children, children you know with wounds of war, which wounds of war are not a single thing for a child.
“In hospitals they were struggling so much, both because so many have been damaged, but also because of just the sheer number of injured people, boys and girls in in waiting rooms with wounds were in car parks.”