Nowhere in Gaza Is Safe for Children
Well over 500 days of war have taken an unimaginable toll on children in the Gaza Strip. UNICEF humanitarian assistance is making a difference, but much more help is urgently needed.
Children don't start wars but they pay the highest price
The situation for children in Gaza is dire and getting worse. Since the start of the conflict in October 2023, more than 14,000 children have been killed, over 34,000 wounded and nearly 1 million repeatedly displaced and deprived of their right to basic services.
A ceasefire that began on Jan. 19, 2025 allowed UNICEF to ramp up delivery of lifesaving supplies, reaching nearly every part of Gaza. But since March 2, no food or commercial goods have been allowed in — the longest blockade since the start of the war. Food, safe water, shelter and medical supplies are all in short supply. Without these essentials, malnutrition, diseases and other preventable conditions will likely surge, leading to an increase in preventable child deaths.
UNICEF continues to call on all parties to end hostilities and reinstate the ceasefire. Civilians, including children and humanitarian aid workers, and remaining infrastructure must be protected, and all hostages must be returned.
UNICEF fights malnutrition, shores up health services, delivers vaccines, improves sanitation and more
Throughout the conflict, despite continued air strikes, fuel shortages, communications blocks and attacks on medical and humanitarian personnel and facilities, UNICEF has worked with partners to meet children's urgent needs.
Nutrition: UNICEF and partners screen children for malnutrition in fixed and mobile sites across Gaza. The acutely malnourished are treated with therapeutic feeding, while those at risk are provided with supplies to prevent acute malnutrition. UNICEF is the sole provider of supplies for treating acute malnutrition in Gaza, procuring and distributing these supplies to partners. By March 18, 21 treatment centers — 15 percent of total outpatient facilities — had closed due to displacement orders or bombardment.
Health: Malnourished children are more vulnerable to disease; nine out of ten children under 5 in Gaza are suffering from one or more infectious diseases. UNICEF works with partners to shore up health services including immunization to prevent the spread of disease. In February 2025, the ceasefire allowed UNICEF's mass polio vaccination campaign to reach more than 602,000 children under the age of 10 —102 percent of the target — in just four days.
Water: UNICEF repairs damaged waterworks, including desalination plants and water wells, and continues to press for the delivery of fuel necessary to operate the generators that power water systems and the trucks that deliver safe water. In February alone, UNICEF and partners ensured the provision of drinking and domestic water to cover the needs of more than 1.5 million people, including over 600,000 children.
Sanitation: The massive displacement of people in Gaza has created a waste management crisis. Despite lack of space and very limited building materials, UNICEF provides urgently needed sanitation facilities: 95 percent of all toilets built in southern Gaza since October 2023 were built by UNICEF. In the first two months of 2025, more than 699,000 people accessed appropriate sanitation facilities with support from UNICEF.
Cash transfers give families purchase power to meet urgent needs; mental heath programs help children recover from trauma
Humanitarian cash transfers: UNICEF is the largest provider of humanitarian cash payments in the Gaza crisis. By the end of February 2025, UNICEF had reached 175,409 vulnerable families in Gaza, including 526,000 children, with flexible funds they can use to meet their immediate needs, when they can find goods for sale in the marketplace.
Mental health: Every child in Gaza needs mental health support to address the potential longterm effects of cumulative exposure to violence, the deaths of family members and friends, and injuries. UNICEF works with partners to provide mental health and psychosocial support for kids, including hospitalized children recovering from their injuries. Giving children the opportunity to just be children for a while, through programs that center on drawing, games and interactive storytelling, helps them recover from the trauma they have experienced.
A devastating humanitarian crisis gets worse
As the bombardment continues, exhausted and terrified families, already displaced multiple times, are being told they must move once again to places without access to the basic infrastructure they need to survive: safe water, proper sanitation, adequate shelter.
"Families' coping capacity has been smashed. They are hanging on — physically and psychologically — by a thread," said UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder. "Aid must flow. Hostages must be freed. We need a ceasefire, now.”
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HOW TO HELP
There are many ways to make a difference
War, famine, poverty, natural disasters — threats to the world's children keep coming. But UNICEF won't stop working to keep children healthy and safe.
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories — more places than any other children's organization. UNICEF has the world's largest humanitarian warehouse and, when disaster strikes, can get supplies almost anywhere within 72 hours. Constantly innovating, always advocating for a better world for children, UNICEF works to ensure that every child can grow up healthy, educated, protected and respected.
Would you like to help give all children the opportunity to reach their full potential? There are many ways to get involved.
