JOHN YANG: The Israeli army says it delivered food, flour and water from the UN World Food Program to Gaza today after overnight Israeli airstrikes killed 19 people, 12 of them children.

The crisis affecting the youngest in Gaza continues to deepen.

And it's not just Gaza.

UNICEF says there's also great need in Lebanon and in Syria.

Earlier, I spoke with UNICEF spokesman James Elder about what he saw on a recent trip to the region.

JAMES ELDER, UNICEF Spokesman: Gaza, unfortunately, stands out, John, in the most graphic manner.

We have reached a point now, after more than a year where suffering has stretched beyond what anyone could possibly not only are the thousands and thousands of children being killed, you have hospitals that Simply can't cope.

70 percent of buildings have been damaged.

Disease is now rife.

So every step people take in Gaza almost gets them one step closer to debt.

JOHN YANG: You talk about the dire situation in Gaza, where, as you say, the war has been going on for more than a year now.

Is there more than just helping things at the margin that UNICEF can do now?

JAMES ELDER: So there's an enormous amount that we do.

But as you rightly point out, John, how much are we able to do in that context?

Everyone has been told for the space of a year that around 500 trucks a day are required into Gaza to enable people to make sure that they've got the food, water, medicine, shelter that they require.

500 is the number.

November we saw 65, an average of 65 trucks a day.

For people who are on their knees.

When there is an occupying power, there is a legal responsibility on that occupying power as Israel, to facilitate aid.

We see anything but that.

But when there is political will, we saw 600,000 children vaccinated against polio in a very short space of time.

So it shows what can be done.

JOHN YANG: The children who do survive in Gaza, you talk about the horrendous death toll.

You talk about children needing care but not getting it.

Those who survive, will they have permanent effects, do you think so?

JAMES ELDER: Medical evacuations of children have become less than one a day.

There are thousands of children who require medical evacuation.

That is, they somehow survive the mortar, the bombing, the fire, the shrapnel.

Shrapnel is designed to rip through concrete.

What it does to a child's body is unbearable.

Now when these children get to hospital, they're getting the most incredible care available, but they're often getting it without the anesthetics, without the antibiotics.

They need medical evacuation.

So, I mean, just a single story.

There was a little girl, Elia, who I met, John, when I was most recently there.

She was four.

When the house that they were in was struck, there was a terrible fire.

Her and her mother both endured 4th degree burns.

Now I met them both.

Her mother was mostly unconscious.

This little girl had already had an arm amputated.

They had medical evacuation denied multiple times.

Finally, finally, after about six weeks, she received medical evacuation, but it was too late.

She died in Jordan after just being there for a matter of days.

I tell that story because as heartbreaking as it is, it's not unique.

It is a story told hundreds of times across Gaza.

And it's so utterly unnecessary that these children who have somehow miraculously survived are not able to leave.

It's not a logistical problem, it's not a technical problem.

It's simply a problem of political will.

JOHN YANG: Problem of political will.

Have you talked to the Israelis or is it possible to talk to the Israelis about this to see if you could somehow alleviate this suffering?

JAMES ELDER: Yeah, there have been discussions at the highest level from governments in the United States, of course, and in Europe.

But no, no answers.

And as a result we see children, as I say, who somehow survived horrendous attacks, dying in hospitals.

JOHN YANG: And the situation in Lebanon, are you able, are you facing the same restrictions or fewer restrictions on ability to help in Lebanon?

JAMES ELDER: No, much less so in Lebanon.

Our response there, again with partners, again with government, was enormous.

We're not restricted by security.

We're not restricted by roads being bombed.

So no Lebanon as a place to enable UNICEF to reach children with that life-saving support, we were able to do it very quickly from day one.

JOHN YANG: And I know you did not go to Syria on this trip, but UNICEF does have teams there.

What do you hear from them about the situation on the ground there?

JAMES ELDER: John, it's, I mean you've got millions of children who've gone through 13, 14, 15 years of war, who've been born into this.

So whoever takes power there, they have to prioritize Syria's 10 million children.

And that simply hasn't happened for many years.

So I think again with the Syrians, with Gazans, there is a willing population there ready to rebuild despite the horrors that the Syrians have endured, despite the horrors of Gaza.

JOHN YANG: James, what other situations, what other individuals from what you saw in Gaza stand out in your mind?

JAMES ELDER: Oh, John, I mean so many.

If I just think of my most recent trip there, I met a little girl, a seven year old girl, Kamar.

I met her in her tent.

Kamar's home was destroyed in an air raid and her foot was badly injured.

Now her foot had to be amputated.

In any other normal scenario, this seven year old girl foot could have been saved.

It wasn't.

And I could physically watch Kamar coil when she would hear planes or when she would hear drones.

And she is still living that hell as you and I speak.

And those cases are thousands and thousands.

There are so few moments in Gaza that bring anything like joy.

I met a little boy in a hospital, Muhammad.

And because I'd seen so many horrendous wounds, I got a sense of which children were going to be okay and who wasn't.

And Muhammad had this spark in his eyes and I could see whilst he had some burns from the fire, he wasn't too badly injured.

And then I saw the adult with him, he was a neighbor.

He explained to me that Muhammad's entire family had been killed.

That's mom and dad, that's brothers and sisters, that's cousins, that's aunts, that's grandparents, everyone.

I never thought I would hear a story like that, John, where the entire family.

The entire family apart from child, has been killed.

I have now heard that more than a dozen times in Gaza.

Every one of them break your heart.

But they are no longer remarkable in Gaza.

JOHN YANG: Is it possible to say there's a single greatest need, a single thing that has to be done or should be done first?

JAMES ELDER: It's a ceasefire.

It all starts with that because as you and I speak, there is still bombing.

It's been an average of 35 girls and boys killed in Gaza every single day for 13 or 14 months.

Not for a week, not for a month.

35 girls and boys killed every day for 30 months.

So, John, it's a ceasefire.

JOHN YANG: James Elder of UNICEF, thank you very much.

JAMES ELDER: Thanks, John.

JOHN YANG: We asked the Israeli Embassy to comment on this story.

We haven't heard back.