WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.N. children's agency said on Sunday over
13,000 children have been killed in Gaza in Israel's offensive, adding
many kids were suffering from severe malnutrition and did not "even
have the energy to cry."

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell did not provide a source
for the child fatality figure during an interview with CBS News.

When asked if Russell was referring to the agency's own estimate or
was basing the figure on reporting from authorities in Hamas-governed
Gaza, a UNICEF spokesperson pointed to a press statement by the U.N.
children's agency that attributed the figure to Gaza's health
ministry.

"Thousands more have been injured or we can't even determine where
they are. They may be stuck under rubble ... We haven't seen that rate
of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world,"
Russell told CBS News' "Face the Nation" program.

"I've been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anemia
malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet. Because the
children, the babies ... don't even have the energy to cry."

Russell said there were "very great bureaucratic challenges" moving
trucks into Gaza for aid and assistance.

A March 14 infographic from OCHA, the U.N. humanitarian office, cites
the Gaza government media office as saying that over 13,000 children
and at least 9,000 women have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7. U.N.
agencies have relied on Gaza authorities for casualty information
during the war.

International criticism has mounted on Israel due to the death toll of
the war, the starvation crisis in Gaza, and allegations of blocking
aid deliveries into the enclave.

A U.N. expert said earlier this month that Israel was destroying
Gaza's food system as part of a broader "starvation campaign." Israel
rejected the accusation.

Israel's military assault on Gaza has displaced nearly its entire 2.3
million-person population, caused a starvation crisis, flattened most
of the enclave, and killed over 31,000 people, according to Gaza's
health ministry. It has also led to accusations of genocide being
probed in the World Court.

Israel denies the genocide charges and says it is acting in self
defense after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel from Hamas that killed some
1,200, according to Israeli tallies, and took scores of hostages.

One in three children under age 2 in northern Gaza is now acutely
malnourished and famine is looming, the main U.N. agency operating in
the Palestinian enclave said on Saturday.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese,
Rami Ayyub and Deepa Babington)

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