UNICEF spokesperson James Elder has traveled to Gaza four times since the war broke out last year. He’s seen how it’s devastated the region and the horrific toll it’s had on the children that live there. According to the humanitarian group, about 70 children every day are injured in the conflict. 

“Unfortunately, every time I’m here things are worse,” Elder tells us from Khan Younis, a city in the southern part of the Gaza strip that was pummeled in a 22-day Israeli offensive earlier this year. 

Elder has traveled to war zones before, but he tells KCM that he’s never witnessed a crisis quite like this: “When UNICEF called this a war on children, we didn’t do that as a headline. We did that based on evidence. We did that based on data. This one has a grossly disproportionate impact on children.”

Because of the media’s restricted access to the region, voices like Elder’s have been crucial in showing the world the grave human cost of this conflict. He gave us a first-hand account of what he’s seeing on the ground, what organizations like UNICEF have — and haven’t — been able to do when it comes to providing aid, what they’re doing to prevent an emerging polio crisis, and more heartbreaking accounts from Gaza.