GAZA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world, the UN agency for Palestine refugees said on Tuesday.
Many children in Gaza are "losing limbs and undergoing surgeries without even anesthesia," Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said on social media platform X.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in September that more than 22,500 people, or one in four people injured during the war in Gaza, sustained life-changing injuries and will need rehabilitation services "now and for years to come".
"During this war, people needing special care have suffered in silence. Their stories rarely told. But the war has also caused an epidemic of traumatic injuries with no rehabilitation services available," Lazzarini said.
Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
During the past 24 hours, the Israeli military killed 36 people and wounded 96 others in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total death toll to 44,502 and injuries to 105,454 since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Tuesday. ■