More than 1,000 children have been killed or injured this year across Syria. The grim statistic, from UNICEF regional communications chief Juliette Touma, comes as violence rips through the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, where about a third of the nearly 400,000 besieged civilians are children, according to the agency. In all, 342 children were killed and 803 were injured in Syria in the first two months of 2018, Touma said, citing multiple sources. About 100 people were killed Monday in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, making it the deadliest day there since the United Nations Security Council passed a nationwide ceasefire resolution on February 24, the Syrian American Medical Society said Tuesday in a statement. Almost 600 people are believed to have been killed and more than 2,000 injured since Syrian government forces launched an air and ground offensive on Eastern Ghouta on February 18, according to the United Nations. Sitting in underground shelters has become the "new norm," UNICEF officials said, and activists' footage of basements show the shelters to be ill-equipped and filthy.
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