UNITED NATIONS/RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM - In Gaza, one child has been killed on average every hour for almost two years, leaving children trapped in a graveyard, the UN humanitarian chief said on Wednesday.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said children have been bombed, maimed, starved, burned alive, buried in the rubble of their homes, and separated from their parents.

During an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's High-Level Week, Fletcher said humanitarians must be given access to reach Gaza's women, children and older people, who "cannot eat statements of concern."

"In Gaza, the lucky children sleep in tents," he said. "In Gaza, shelters are bombed, and schools have become sites of horror, depriving over 700,000 children of their right to education."

Fletcher said the suffering of children is not limited to Gaza but also the West Bank, where children are subjected to escalating levels of violence, including by settlers.

Fletcher said a lawless world stripped of dignity and hope must not be bequeathed to children. "We do not have to choose between fighting anti-semitism and holding Israel to the same laws as everyone else," he said, adding that the world must join together in calling for a ceasefire.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that Israeli military operations have continued across the Gaza Strip, including in several neighborhoods of Gaza City, where people were reportedly killed and injured and infrastructure was damaged. The Gaza health authorities have warned that fuel is urgently needed for hospital generators.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Tuesday that escalating violence near the Al-Rantisi and Ophthalmic hospitals in Gaza City made them non-functional, unsafe and inaccessible, forcing patients and staff to flee for safety.

"With hundreds of thousands of people still in Gaza City and health facilities shutting down, more lives will be lost," the WHO said.

From the beginning of this year to mid-September, the WHO said it recorded 145 attacks on health care in Gaza, with more than 100 health care workers killed.

OCHA said its partners reported that people continue to be displaced from Gaza City southward to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. On Monday, 20,000 people, many of whom were on foot, passed by monitoring points in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. The United Nations and partners distributed bread and water to some of the displaced passing by.

"Humanitarians continue to do whatever they can to reach people in need across the Gaza Strip, both in the north and the south," said the office. 

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Karama Bridge

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned Israel's closure of the Karama Bridge, known in Israel as the Allenby Bridge, the only land crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, calling it a policy of "collective punishment."

In a statement, the ministry said the closure would cause severe humanitarian and economic harm and described it as "an integral part of the crime of gradual annexation of the West Bank and its transformation into a large prison closed off in all directions by a tight siege imposed by the occupation." It accused Israel of seeking to escalate tensions in the occupied territory and urged the international community to intervene immediately.

Nazmi Mohanna, head of the Palestinian Crossings and Borders Authority, said Israel had notified the authority on Tuesday that the closure would take effect from Wednesday and remain in place "until further notice, in both directions."

The announcement came one day after Israeli authorities reopened the crossing following a four-day shutdown triggered by an armed attack that killed two Israelis. The Israeli military said the assailant, driving a humanitarian aid truck from Jordan, was shot dead at the scene.

Israel has not officially commented on the latest closure. Israeli Army Radio reported that it could be an initial response to the recent recognition of the State of Palestine by several Western countries. 

Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian man 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Wednesday that its soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man in the northern West Bank.

According to the statement, the incident occurred during an IDF operation near the village of Anza, south of Jenin, when the man allegedly hurled an explosive device at the soldiers.

It added that the soldiers responded with fire and killed the man, with no casualties among the Israeli forces.

Palestinian official news agency WAFA identified the victim as 19-year-old Ahmed Jihad Barahmeh.

According to the report, he was shot in the back and succumbed to his wounds after being transferred to a nearby hospital.

WAFA added that the incident took place in the morning during an Israeli military raid on the village, as students were on their way to school. The raid disrupted classes and led to confrontations between residents and the Israeli soldiers.

It noted that the Israeli soldiers took over a home in the village center, turning it into a military outpost from which they fired live ammunition in multiple directions, with one of the bullets hitting Barahmeh.