The Gaza Strip is the "most dangerous place in the world to be a child," the head of the United Nations children's agency UNICEF said yesterday, Wednesday.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the U.N. Security Council that more than 5,300 Palestinian children had reportedly been killed since October 7.

Israel has focused its retaliation against Hamas in Gaza, a territory of 2.3 million people.

"The true cost of this latest war in Palestine and Israel will be measured in children's lives – those lost to the violence and those forever changed by it. Without an end to the fighting and full humanitarian access, the cost will continue to grow exponentially," Russell, who last week visited Gaza, said at a council briefing on women and children there.

Israel has bombarded Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and invaded with soldiers and tanks.

"The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child," Russell said. "In Gaza, the effects of the violence perpetrated on children have been catastrophic, indiscriminate and disproportionate."