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For families “grieving the loss of their children, these grim statistics do not equate to a ceasefire”, stressed spokesman Ricardo Pires.
He added that in the last two weeks in Gaza alone, five boys and two girls were reported killed and at least 33 children seriously injured as a result of airstrikes, drone strikes and gunfire across the Gaza Strip. Two other boys died from previously suffered injuries, Pires told reporters in Geneva.
Nowhere is safe
The consequences of the Hamas-Israel war are everywhere for children: “where they sleep, what they eat, whether they can learn”, he continued, citing cases
Norhan, 16, whose mother was shot when she was eight months pregnant. “She gave birth to the baby and then died the next day,” explained Pires. “Norhan’s father lives as a disabled person, so he now looks after his one-year-old sister, Narjis, and takes full responsibility. His days are spent cleaning the house, cooking and playing with Narjis. His other three siblings attend school.” UNICEF-supports the learning center and Norhan helps them study after class, which he says means, ‘They might have a future.’”
When asked about reports that private traders in Gaza had stopped cooperating with the Israeli government in allowing commercial trucks carrying food to enter the occupied enclave, a UNICEF spokesperson stressed that the uninterrupted flow of “humanitarian and commercial goods” remained essential, “so that children can continue their recovery”.
He recalled being in Gaza City last year before the ceasefire began, when supplies “didn’t come in” and famine was declared by UN-backed food insecurity experts.
“We cannot return to a situation where children and families do not get all the supplies, goods and services they need,” he stressed, “where children do not receive what they need to survive and continue to have hope for their future.”
Winter warning
UNICEF’s warning comes as temperatures drop and refugee families in Gaza fill empty flour bags with sand to prevent rainwater from entering their tents. Aid agencies continue to repeat warnings that the situation in Gaza remains dire, after three years of war, sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel.
The ongoing sanitation crisis is of particular concern in this war-torn enclave, where Israeli bombing has damaged the drainage network.
“There are many pools of wastewater, such as the Sheikh Radwan rainwater basin which is half full,” Pires warned. “With the winter rainy season approaching, we are running out of time to pump the water out. As we warned a year ago, contaminated water could overflow and inundate residential areas downstream with potentially life-threatening impacts on children and their families. Children have drowned in sewage-contaminated water before.”
There is no shelter
According to UNICEF, 800,000 children remain refugees in Gaza “and the majority live in tents or dangerous bombed buildings”. An estimated 60,000 children have seen one or both parents killed during the war, or since the ceasefire, while almost every child needs mental health support to recover.
As part of UN assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, UNICEF has helped more than 560,000 children return to learning since the ceasefire, including in more than 200 UNICEF-supported learning centers.
The agency has also provided digital cash assistance – which is a “lifeline”, Pires stressed – to more than 380,000 people, as well as clean water to 1.2 million people.
