Gaza Strip ‘the most dangerous place in the world’ for children — Unicef

Palestinians make the crossing from the northern Gaza Strip to the southern Gaza Strip along Salah Al Din road in the central Gaza Strip on 25 November 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Mohammed Saber)

By Tamsin Metelerkamp

21 Dec 2023

Unicef has declared the Gaza Strip the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. As the Israel-Gaza war passes the 75-day mark, it is estimated that children account for 40% of deaths in the Strip.

It has been just over 75 days since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war. Children, who make up about half the population in the Gaza Strip, have been disproportionately affected by the ongoing violence, facing displacement, disease and overwhelming levels of destruction.

The most recent statistics from the Ministry of Health in Gaza put the death toll in the region at 20,000, with a further 55,000 people injured.

gaza children unicef Palestinian volunteers hand food to children among tents set up for Palestinians seeking refuge on the grounds of a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees centre at the Khan Yunis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on 25 October 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Haitham Imad)

“Based on the figures that we have, children account for about 40% of the deaths in Gaza, and that’s unprecedented,” said Tess Ingram, a spokesperson of Unicef based in Amman, Jordan.

“Unicef has been calling for an immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire…. that’s the one thing that we think will make the biggest difference in the lives of children in Israel and Gaza at the moment.

“That ceasefire needs to happen as soon as possible so that… we can get aid into and across Gaza safely.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel-Palestine War

In recent days, the United Nations Security Council has repeatedly delayed voting on a draft resolution seeking more aid for Gaza and a suspension of hostilities by parties to the conflict.

According to a BBC report, the United States – a close ally of Israel – has insisted on changes to the resolution.

This comes after the US vetoed a previous UN Security Council vote for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the conflict.

“This vote has been delayed for days, but it comes after weeks of discussion of a ceasefire and only a short humanitarian pause… Every day that this goes on, more and more children are dying, and so it’s something that needs to happen with absolute urgency,” said Ingram.

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Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel makes new offer for one-week pause in warfare; Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders travel to Cairo

Secondary health concerns

Unicef has reported 100,000 cases of diarrhoea among children in Gaza, with half of these cases occurring in children under five years of age. Ingram pointed out that diarrhoea is the second-leading cause of death in children under five, making the explosion of cases in Gaza a “red alert” issue.

gaza children unicef A Palestinian mother with her children walks out of the West Bank Jenin camp, heading to a safer area as Israeli forces raid the refugee camp for a third consecutive day on 14 December 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Alaa Badarneh)

“People are having to resort to open defecation or unclean water sources that might be too salty or that might be polluted. That really increases the risk of diseases like diarrhoea. There have also been reports of lice, scabies, chicken pox, skin rashes, jaundice and acute respiratory infections,” she said.

Many people in southern Gaza have access to only 1.5 to two litres of water a day, she continued. This is less than the three litres per day a person requires for basic survival.

“Food is another massive challenge... It’s very, very difficult for the people of Gaza to have access to nutritional food at the moment. I spoke to a colleague who said there are lines of four, five, six hours for a bread ration which most people might have to share with their whole family,” reported Ingram.

“We’re really worried about what that means for women and the children, but particularly for babies. We estimate that there are about 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza and about… 5,500 who give birth each month…

“When you think about a child being born into war from a mother who hasn’t had good access to nutritional food or clean water, that raises a lot of concerns about the health of both the mother and the child.”

Unicef has been working to bring aid into Gaza, including clean water, nutritional supplements for mothers and newborn babies, and “therapeutic food” – a paste with high nutritional value given to severely malnourished children.

gaza children unicef Pro-Palestinian protesters laid more than 450 symbolic children’s coffins in remembrance of the children killed in Gaza, outside Downing Street in London on 30 November 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Tolga Akmen)

“However, factors such as airstrikes, telecommunications blackouts and shortages of fuel have made it very difficult to get aid into and across the area, according to Ingram.

More than 30 child hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas after its violent incursion into Israel on 7 October have been released, she said. The number of child hostages that may still be held by the militant group is unconfirmed.

“It was something that we were calling for very strongly right from the beginning – that all hostages need to be released, particularly child hostages, to be reunited with their families,” said Ingram.

It has been widely reported that more than 100 of the 240 hostages taken by Hamas remain in Gaza. The BBC reported that 105 hostages were released in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails during the six-day ceasefire in November.

Mental health and education

Unicef has observed significant mental health impacts on children affected by the Israel-Gaza war, particularly those living in the Gaza Strip, according to Ingram.

“Before 7 October… you had 90%, 95% of the children in the Gaza Strip needing some form of mental health support, and now we estimate that’s 100%...

“Many of them have lost friends, they’ve lost family, they’ve lost their home. They’ve sustained physical injuries. They don’t feel safe,” she said.

“In most conflicts, children can leave. They might experience violence or fear, but then they’re able to move to safety. That’s not the case in this crisis. They’re unable to escape and they’re remaining stuck in this cycle of exposure to trauma.”

Toby Fricker, another Unicef representative, told Daily Maverick that it was hard to know how children would recover from living through “this level of devastation” in the long term.

gaza children unicef Palestinians make the crossing from the northern to the southern Gaza Strip along Salah Al Din road on 25 November 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Mohammed Saber)

“Mental wellbeing also impacts on children’s physical wellbeing. As they grow older we see, for example, panic attacks that can set in… The longer things go on, the worse that becomes... as children are more exposed to the violence at an everyday level.”

Children in Gaza have not had access to schooling and education since the start of the conflict in October, continued Fricker, adding that this sets the situation in the region apart from some of the other conflicts in which Unicef has been involved.

“What we usually say is education in emergencies is absolutely critical, because if you keep schools running to a certain degree… and you make sure those schools are protected… it at least provides some normalcy for children who are living through such horrors on an everyday basis,” he said.

“In Gaza, that’s been impossible. The level of destruction, the level of horror, has meant every school has closed.”

There are about 625,000 learners in Gaza, according to Ingram. Reports issued by the Ministry of Education in the region state that more than 3,800 learners and over 200 school staff have died in the conflict.

“One of the other things to note is the destruction of school facilities… About 70% of schools have been damaged or destroyed. So, it does raise a question about the future.

“What sort of work is going to need to be done to restore those facilities and education for children of Gaza?” she said.

“Unicef has been in there assessing the damage and also the available spaces left for temporary learning and for the recreational activities that we run.” DM

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Secondary health concerns

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