A UN report published yesterday said Israel’s nearly month-long offensive against Hamas had had a “catastrophic and tragic impact” on children in the area. The UN has repeatedly warned that Gaza is on the brink of a full-blown crisis and has warned that it is struggling to cope. The UN relief and works agency says at least 270,000 people are in shelter at around 90 of their centres across Gaza. Israeli shelling has destroyed or damaged 142 schools, 89 of which were UN run. Unicef has estimated that those children who have survived the conflict will be left with severe psychological difficulties and will require immediate psycho-social support. The organisation believes upwards of 373,000 children with have some kind of psychological trauma and many face an “extraordinarily bleak” future. ernille Ironside, head of the field office run by the UN children’s agency in Gaza said: "How do we expect parents and caregivers to care for their children and to raise them in a positive and nurturing way when they themselves are barely functioning as humans?"

"People have lost entire strands of their family in one blow. How can a society cope with this? This is a deep, deep, deep wound,"