News - Middle East: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for immediate reopening of all crossings to facilitate the delivery of essential food aid into the Gaza Strip, warning that more Palestinian children could die as their immune systems have been severely compromised due to Israel’s war.

"The situation is critical. We risk seeing a massive spike in child death, not only neonatal, but also infants, given their immune systems are more compromised than ever before," UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said on Friday.

He made the remarks as a fragile ceasefire, brokered by the United States, has taken effect in Gaza, and Israeli forces began withdrawing from some parts of the strip on Friday.

The United Nations plans to ramp up its delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza to alleviate famine, in the first 60 days of a ceasefire in the strip, a top UN official said on Thursday.

The UNICEF spokesperson stressed that nutrition support is the main priority, with “50,000 children” at risk of acute malnutrition and in desperate need of immediate treatment.

Pires said the immunity of children in Gaza was low because "they haven't been eating properly and recently at all for way too long."

"With children, they need to have the right vitamins and the nutrients to develop and be able to cope with temperature changes, or virus outbreaks," he added.

The Israeli cabinet approved the ceasefire deal with Hamas on Thursday.

Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya also confirmed that the movement had also approved the agreement “to end the war.”

The deal marks the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan, with further stages to be negotiated at a later date.

Israel has so far killed at least 67,194 Palestinians since it launched the genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.

Press TV