Children are paying the heaviest price of this war.
Childhood in Gaza has been completely shattered. 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.
400,000 people in northern Gaza - 130,000 of them children under 10 - 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. Children are unable to be treated for injuries, disease, or malnutrition as the health system is being systemically decimated.
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 – trapped under rubble, buried in unmarked graves, detained, or separated from their families in the chaos of the war.
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 meant to be off limits in war. Yet they continue to pay for this war with their lives and futures. It must stop. They must be protected.
To truly protect children’s lives, we need a definitive ceasefire now and safe humanitarian access.
Our response.
Our teams and partners have been working around the clock to get vital supplies to families in Gaza.
As of 7 November 2024, Save the Children and its partners have helped more than 1,068,990 people across the occupied Palestinian territory, including over 1 million 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. In October 2024, we opened a second primary health care centre in Khan Younis, treating over 980 patients and conducting nutrition screening for more than 200 children under 5 in its first five days. We’ve set up safe spaces for children to play, learn and process the traumatic events they are going through.
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.
We have been unable to access northern Gaza to deliver food parcels for 5,000 families, and other aid supplies, for over seven weeks. We have consequently re-directed and delivered the food parcels to southern Gaza where the needs are still great, though not as critical
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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