A spokesman for the UN children’s agency has said the situation in conflict-ridden Gaza is so desperate that teenagers are now saying they hope to be swiftly killed to escape the “nightmare”, AFP reports.

“The unspeakable is regularly said in Gaza,” said James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency Unicef.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva via video message from Rafah in southern Gaza, he said the agency had held a meeting with adolescents.

Several said they were “so desperate for this nightmare to end that they hoped to be killed”, he said.