People in Gaza experiencing 'deprivation of water'
James Elder said that a 100-day blockade of fuel in the region is impacting water as "you need fuel to distribute water", with those in the territory experiencing "deprivation of water".
Mr Elder, who was in Gaza, said the blockade on any fuel entering the enclave is "one of the darkest testimonies to the intent of what we're seeing in Gaza".
"A 100-day blockade of fuel means that people are within weeks of seeing children die of thirst," he said.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said that water is being supplied to the enclave in two ways, through pipelines and electricity.
Israel is controlling the pipelines, Mr Elder said, and they "turn the tap on and off"; while electricity is used to run desalination plants.
"You can talk backwards and forwards about blocking food because Hamas steals it," he said. "There's no evidence base to that.
"It's a population being starved, water goes straight to a population, so again there is no rhyme nor reason, no evidence nor logic for that."
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show.
Gaza's health ministry says Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians.
It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations.
A previous two month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on 18 March.
The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation operates four sites in Gaza, Mr Elder said, adding "imagine all of all of Dublin was under a siege and then you've got four sites now in Citywest and that's the only four sites you can get food".
He added UNICEF "can't access them" because the sites are located in "a militarised site", adding "anywhere we move in the Gaza Strip must be deconflicted".
Their operation within such zones, he said, is "one of the great concerns with this".
"You cannot force people through a militarised zone and then have a justification for them being shot because they're in a militarised zone," he said.
He noted that UNICEF is "still handing out therapeutic food, doing our distributions, and no one is being shot, no one is being killed, whether it's in Sudan, Ethiopia or Gaza".
'Immense hope' for Gaza
Mr Elder said that he has an "immense hope" for Gaza due to its literacy rate and people's attitude.
"Parents and grandparents do everything in their power to keep those kids in school," he said, adding "UNICEF does the same in our education work, in our trauma work".
"So there is a reason why Palestinian graduates from Gaza are the envy of universities around the region," he added.
However, Mr Elder warned "we are in unchartered territory when it comes to trauma".
"Every single child in Gaza needs mental health support," he said.
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