As the United Nations children’s agency’s Representative in the State of Palestine, I’m often asked how children in Gaza are coping. In my decades-long career as a humanitarian I can honestly say I have never witnessed a crisis like the one in Gaza children continue to endure.
Since late May, a small number of UN and UNICEF aid trucks have now finally entered the Strip. This is a very welcome development. But it’s a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.
In recent days it has been heartbreaking to see the chaotic and deadly events at aid distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. These bypass the UN, which operated a huge and effective delivery system prior to hostilities resuming. The UN has a clear, principled and practical plan to save lives at scale. We must be allowed to do our jobs.
The urgency could not be starker. Since all aid was stopped from entering on 2 March, hunger has exploded, and with it the real risk of death. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (ICP) on 12 May found that 470,000 in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger and that 71,000 children and 17,000 mothers will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. Before the war, acute malnutrition was not something that happened to children in Gaza.
Even before the aid blockade and increasingly urgent hunger situation, this was already a child protection catastrophe which should shake all Europeans and global citizens to our very core – and compel those with power and influence to act.
On 7 October 2023, 37 children were killed in attacks in Israel and 36 children were abducted into the Gaza Strip. The war that has followed these brutal events continues to inflict suffering on children on an appalling scale. Children have been killed with a dreadful frequency (over 15,600 reportedly killed in Gaza at the time of writing). And many who’ve not paid this heavy price have suffered life-threatening or life-changing injuries, the loss of loved ones, the destruction of their homes, and forced displacements in the desperate search for a degree of safety. Nine out of ten of the 2.1 million people in Gaza have been displaced, with many families forced to move multiple times.
There is no safe place to go in the Gaza Strip. Nearly 88.5% of schools will require full reconstruction or major rehabilitation before they can function again. And relentless attacks on hospitals, primary healthcare facilities and healthcare transport have crippled the health sector.
The 60 days of ceasefire offered a respite of sorts, allowing UNICEF and other aid agencies to deliver supplies and services to every part of Gaza. But the collapse of the ceasefire has meant not just a reversion to the grim status quo but new levels of suffering for children. Over 1,000 children were reportedly killed or injured in just the first week following the breakdown of the ceasefire in March, the highest one-week death toll among children in Gaza in the past year.
“Fear and horror” is how 11-year-old Jana, newly displaced, summed it up to our teams on the ground. “We don’t know where we will go. This is enough. We don’t want any more wars.”
The suffering of children like Jana can be alleviated but instead is being compounded. Food, medicine, fuel, shelter supplies and vital equipment have been stuck at crossing points. Bakeries have been forced to close. The prices of essential food, hygiene products and warm clothing have skyrocketed.
During the first six weeks of the ceasefire, before aid was stopped from entering, UNICEF was able to provide warm clothing to 150,000 children, 245,000 tarpaulins for families, reach over 25,000 with essential medical care, provide humanitarian cash assistance to over 195,000 people, and increase water distribution for nearly 500,000 people daily in remote areas.
This was not enough to respond to the vast needs of children and families in Gaza. (Even when humanitarian trucks have been allowed to enter Gaza, the volume has been very low compared to the pre-war average of 500 trucks per day).
Despite this immense challenge, as well as ongoing military operations and the widespread collapse of public order, UNICEF has stayed to keep delivering for children in Gaza. And we will remain.
This distribution of lifesaving supplies and services would not be possible without the invaluable support of the European Union and its Member States, including Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. Our partnership with the European Union, specifically, is ensuring vulnerable children benefit from water and sanitation, education and mental health support, health and nutrition, and cash transfers.
It's important to remember that humanitarian assistance alone cannot sustain the residents of Gaza Strip. Commercial goods and supplies are urgently needed and key services including water and sanitation, health and the banking system must be reestablished. In this dire context, preventing the UN agency for Palestine Refugees UNRWA from operating threatens this provision of essential services, as well as life-saving assistance. Reconstruction efforts, when we reach this moment, must put children first. There is no meaningful day after scenario in Gaza that does not include them.
But children in Gaza will not reach the day after if they continue to lack basic necessities like food and healthcare today and tomorrow. The resumption of aid flows into Gaza is not charity or a choice. It’s an obligation under international humanitarian law. I appeal to European leaders and decision makers to use all their power and influence to ensure the resumption of necessary flows of aid trucks into Gaza. I call again, as I did in December last year when I addressed MEPs at the European Parliament, for the release of all hostages and for a permanent ceasefire.
We must also not forget that children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are facing devastating consequences with violence reaching unprecedented levels. The number of Palestinian children killed in the West Bank has increased by 200% since 7 October 2023, mainly from live ammunition and drone strikes.
Children in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip have the right to be protected from violence – including and especially the devastating impact of weapons of war. They also have the right to food, healthcare, mental health support, education and opportunities. Otherwise, there is no future for children in Palestine. And the region, and the international community, faces a less secure and more polarized future.
My colleagues in Gaza recently met 10-year-old Eline and her toddler brother Ahmed who had been pulled out of the rubble of their bombed-out home by their uncles. Eline dusted off the debris from a stuffed toy. "I ask the world to help us,” she said. “I wish to live like any other child and have a beautiful life."
This article was published with the support of PA International Foundation
Donate to UNICEF’s appeal for children in Gaza: https://help.unicef.org/
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