A Unicef spokeswoman has said that an intense wave of Israeli strikes has prompted deep concern for the more than one million children in the Gaza Strip who “are bearing the brunt of this war”, AFP reports.

“We are deeply, deeply worried. Children’s lives are at risk in so many ways,” Rosalia Bollen, a spokeswoman for the United Nations children’s fund, told AFP after “a really tough and frightening night for all of us” in Gaza.

“There are over one million children in Gaza, and they are bearing the brunt of this war,” said Bollen from Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip.

The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said the strikes killed more than 400 people and separately reported 174 children killed. According to initial data collected by Unicef, they include “dozens and dozens of children, with many more children wounded”, Bollen said.

AFP correspondents saw children’s bodies retrieved from bombarded buildings while the injured were taken to hospitals.

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