Children are paying the heaviest price of this war.
One year of Israeli bombardment has shattered childhoods in Gaza. The occupied Palestinian territory, specifically Gaza, is the deadliest place on earth to be a child. Every day, children face violence, fear, loss, displacement, hunger and devastation. They are being killed by bombs and bullets at an unprecedented rate. They are dying because of hunger and disease. They have lost homes, loved ones, and the safety to which they have a right. Those who survive live a life that no child should have to. The longer the war continues, the harder it’ll be to piece their lives back together.
400,000 people in northern Gaza are caught between fear of attack and starvation. There have been no food deliveries since the 1st October due to the siege and restrictions and Israeli forces have been escalating attacks and ordering an already starving population to evacuate, but there is nowhere safe for them to go.
The risk of famine is real and will remain high as long as fighting continues, and humanitarian access remains restricted. 96% of the population across the Strip are facing severe food shortages as a result of the ongoing violence, displacement and restrictions on aid. Moreover, over 20,000 children are estimated to be missing in the chaos of war, and thousands are presumed dead beneath the rubble. Others have been harmed beyond recognition by explosives, buried in unmarked or mass graves, or have been detained or abducted.
Now, another winter is approaching. Yet again, children in Gaza are facing the threat of the cold and wet weather while living in tents, far away from the warmth of their homes. Families in Gaza have nowhere safe to go. Thousands of Palestinian children and families have been repeatedly forcibly displaced into smaller and smaller spaces.
Children are paying the highest price for a war they play no part in. These things should not be normalised for any children, anywhere. It cannot be their new normal.
To truly protect children’s lives, we need a definitive ceasefire now.
Our response.
Our teams and partners have been working around the clock to get vital supplies to families in Gaza.
Since October 2023, Save the Children and its partners have helped more than 720,000 people across the occupied Palestinian territory, including over 693,000 people in Gaza.
We’re providing food, water, toiletries and blankets to families. We have distributed $8.6 million of cash assistance to affected families in the region, including $8 million in Gaza and the West Bank. Our Emergency Health Unit is treating sick, injured and malnourished children, providing maternal and newborn care and mental health support for children. We’ve set up safe spaces for children to play, learn and process the traumatic events they are going through.
We have 5,000 food parcels destined for families in the north that can't enter due to the siege and restrictions. Starvation must not be used as a weapon of war.
We’re doing everything possible to help families get through this. But to give children all the support they need right now, we need a definitive ceasefire and improved humanitarian access. Since October, aid has been blocked, delayed, attacked and denied and it is challenging children’s survival at every turn. We are being forced to operate in impossible conditions, and not enough aid is getting to families in Gaza.
Until we have full and safe access, we can’t provide the level of support that children and families need. The challenges aid workers face in reaching children and families must never become the new normal. We are prepared to scale up further in Gaza to respond to the spiralling needs. But the basic conditions to reach families need to be established by the Government of Israel by lifting the siege and facilitating the safe, unobstructed delivery of aid across Gaza.
We are by children’s side in Gaza and we’ll keep calling for a world that respects their right to survive and be protected. But we can’t do it without your support.
Somayya*, 37, is a mother of seven children, five daughters and two sons, ages 19, 17, 13, 11, 9, 6 and one and four months old. The family lived in a border area in northern Gaza, but were forcibly in the early days of the war and now live in a displacement camp in Deir al-Balah. The youngest child, Ali*, was severely malnourished which affected his bones, and he cannot move or walk. She took him to a Save the Children clinic where he received treatment. Somayya*'s other children are behind in their education, and some of them lost interest in education because of the war. They do not have access to proper nutrition either and depend on food that comes from charity. The family wishes that the war ends and that they go back to their suburban quiet neighbourhood where they can live peacefully. Yasmeen Fayeq/Save the Children
Our impact for children in Gaza
Learn how Save the Children have supported children and families over the past year of with your support.
Lana's Story.
Tima* (26) found out she was pregnant in July 2023. She was excited to be having her second child. Then in October 2023, the war in Gaza started and everything changed.
Tima* and her family now live in a tent in central Gaza. She was very worried about where she would give birth safely until she found Save the Children’s new maternity unit, set up by our Emergency Health Unit.
Tima ended up giving birth there and her daughter Lana* became the first baby to be born in our maternity unit.
Although baby Lana was healthy when she left the hospital, after three days she developed a fever, refused to breastfeed and had blood coming from her umbilical cord. Baby Lana had contracted sepsis due to the tough living conditions in Al-Mawasi where her family lives in a tent.
If left untreated, sepsis can easily kill a baby. But Lana was lucky to be treated in time at our hospital and has now made a full recovery.
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