By Umut Uras

      Up to 21,000 children are unaccounted for since Israel launched war on Gaza on October 7, according to Save the Children. The advocacy group calls for a ceasefire to look for the missing children.

      Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says intense fighting in Gaza is nearly over, but insists war will continue even if a ceasefire deal is agreed with Hamas. The Palestinian group says Netanyahu’s comments shows he rejects the proposal laid out by US President Joe Biden on May 31.

      Meanwhile, two more babies have died from malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, bringing the known death toll from hunger and thirst to 31, health officials say.

      A joint investigation by Al Jazeera and Forensic Architecture has found that an Israeli tank fired at six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab’s family car likely from 13-23 metres (42-75 feet).

      At least 37,598 people have been killed and 86,032 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

      Here’s what aid groups have said on ‘Israel’s war on children’

      Israel has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, and nearly half of them are children. The high casualties and abuse of Palestinian children have alarmed aid agencies, including the UN.

      Earlier this month, the UN added Israel to the “blacklist” of countries harming children in conflict.

      On Monday, UK-based Save the Children called for an investigation into Gaza’s missing children, stressing that 21,000 children were estimated to be lost, disappeared, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves as a result of the Israeli operation in Gaza.

      The report by Save the Children is the latest statement by NGOs and international organisations highlighting the crimes being committed against the children in Gaza.

      Here are some other striking statements and numbers:

      The UN called Gaza a graveyard for children in a striking statement in November.

      UNICEF said in May there is no safe place for children in Gaza, adding that they are paying the highest price in the war. In June, UNICEF said about 90 percent of children in Gaza lacked nutrition and faced “severe” threats to their “survival, growth and development”.

      In June, the UN chief added Israel to the “list of shame” of warring parties committing grave violations against children in armed conflicts, saying he was “shocked by the unprecedented number of children killed and maimed by the Israeli army and security forces in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem”.

      A UN report published in June verified “8,009 grave violations against 4,360 children” in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

      The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said more than 50,000 children in Gaza require immediate medical treatment for acute malnutrition.

      More than 8,000 youngsters have been diagnosed and treated for acute malnutrition, including 1,600 children with the most dangerous form of the condition, the WHO said in a statement made in June. At least 31 children have died so far due to malnutrition amid Israeli restrictions on aid supplies.

      Israel’s military operations would change ‘tactically, but not strategically’

      The Israeli military operations would change “tactically, but absolutely not strategically”, Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi says following Netanyahu’s remarks that “intense fighting in Gaza is nearly over”.

      “Today the army is everywhere in the Strip, the fact that the prime minister said that in two weeks the intensity will decrease does not mean that we will stop the fighting, but the operations will change tactically, but absolutely not strategically.”