The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that “childhood cannot survive” in Gaza City as Israel prepares to take control of the major city amid its war with the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

UNICEF spokesperson Tis Ingram said in a Thursday briefing: “The world is sounding the alarm about what the intense military assault in Gaza City could bring – a catastrophe for nearly one million people still there.”

The Israeli army is currently preparing to take control of Gaza City, the largest city in the besieged Palestinian territory. Thousands of reserve soldiers were called up on Tuesday.

In detailing the situation she witnessed in Gaza over the past nine days, Ingram said: “This unimaginable thing is not imminent – it is already happening. The escalation is ongoing.”

She added: “Malnutrition and famine are weakening children’s bodies while displacement deprives them of shelter and care, and the bombardment threatens every movement they make. This is what famine looks like in a war zone and it was everywhere I looked in Gaza City.”

The UNICEF official said the situation in the Palestinian territory “is not accidental. It is a direct result of choices that have turned Gaza City, and the entire territory, into a place where people’s lives are attacked from all angles, every day.”

She said Palestinian life is being steadily and surely dismantled, calling on Israel to “review its rules of engagement to ensure children’s protection” and to allow humanitarian aid to enter, as well as urging Hamas to release all hostages.

Israel has largely reduced Gaza to rubble as it battles Hamas in the Palestinian territory.

The war erupted after Hamas and other armed groups from Gaza attacked Israeli settlements near Gaza on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Of the 48 remaining hostages in Gaza, about 20 are believed to still be alive.

Since then, more than 64,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to the local health authority run by Hamas, figures considered reliable by the United Nations.

Criticism of Israel is growing given the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza as Israel expands its military operations there.