Palestinian children wait in queues as the US-based international volunteer aid organization, World Central Kitchen (WCK) distribute meals cooked on wood fire due to fuel crisis, as the Israeli army continues to block the entrance of humanitarian aid, food and other products into Gaza on March 16, 2025 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. [Abed Rahim Khatib - Anadolu Agency]
Palestinian children wait in queues as the US-based international volunteer aid organization, World Central Kitchen (WCK) distribute meals cooked on wood fire due to fuel crisis, as the Israeli army continues to block the entrance of humanitarian aid, food and other products into Gaza on March 16, 2025 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. [Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency]
The Middle East and North Africa Regional Director of UNICEF has just concluded a four-day mission to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. “The situation is extremely concerning,” said Edouard Beigbeder in a press release.
The UN official pointed out that children in the State of Palestine are “far too often” the victims of the relentless conflict. Nearly all of the 2.4 million children living across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, are affected in some way.
“Some children live with tremendous fear or anxiety; others face the real consequences of deprivation of humanitarian assistance and protection, displacement, destruction or death,” said Beigbeder. “All children must be protected.”
Israel is blocking humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip. Without aid entering the Gaza Strip, explained Beigbeder, roughly one million children are living without the very basics they need to survive, yet again.
“Stalled just a few dozen kilometres outside the Gaza Strip sit more than 180,000 doses of essential childhood routine vaccines, enough to fully vaccinate and protect 60,000 children under two years of age, as well as 20 lifesaving ventilators for neonatal intensive care units.” While UNICEF managed to deliver 30 CPAP respiratory machines — which significantly aid newborns experiencing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and prematurity — the ventilators are essential for infants needing advanced respiratory support.
Tragically, approximately 4,000 newborns are currently unable to access essential lifesaving care due to the major impact of the Israeli genocide on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip. Every day without these ventilators, UNICEF reports, lives are lost, especially among vulnerable, premature newborns in the northern Gaza Strip.
“UNICEF is advocating for these lifesaving children’s health supplies to be allowed to enter. There is no reason why they shouldn’t be,” insisted Beigbeder. “In accordance with international humanitarian law, civilians’ essential needs must be met, and this requires facilitating the entry of life-saving assistance whether or not there is a ceasefire in place. Any further delays to the entry of aid risk further slowing or shuttering essential services and could fast-reverse the gains made for children during the ceasefire.”
READ: 80% of Palestinians in Gaza face severe food shortage
The official noted that UNICEF needs to deliver these essential supplies for children, including newborns, before it is too late. And, he added, must keep essential services running.
“I visited the UNICEF-supported water desalination plant in Khan Younis in Gaza, the only facility that received electricity since November 2024 and which has now been disconnected. It is now running at only 13 per cent of its capacity, depriving hundreds of thousands of people from drinkable water and sanitation services.”
With regard to the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Beigbeder said that more than 200 Palestinian and three Israeli children have been killed since October 2023, the highest figure recorded in such a timeframe in the past two decades.
“In Jenin and the north of the West Bank, more than 35,000 have been forced to leave their homes and their belongings and find shelter elsewhere. Education is heavily disrupted for nearly 12,000 children, because of the recent population displacements.”
Moreover, the children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are often exposed to roadblocks and the absence of school supplies.
“In Jenin, I met with many displaced mothers and children in shelters,” said Beigbeder. “They told me how much they were suffering from the violence, the fear and the disruption to education. They said they were not asking for charity, just for the respect of their rights and the possibility to return to their homes.”
UNICEF continues to do everything it can to protect and support children in the State of Palestine. It is repairing water systems, running mental health sessions, setting up learning centres and advocating constantly with decision makers for access and for the violence to cease, but this alone is not enough.
“Children must not be killed, injured or displaced and all parties must respect their obligations under international law,” concluded Beigbeder. “Civilians’ essential and protection needs must be met, and humanitarian assistance must be allowed to flow at speed and scale. All hostages must be swiftly released, and the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip must continue and support lasting solutions to the conflict. Tens of thousands of children have been killed and injured. We must not go back to a situation that pushes these numbers higher.”
OPINION: Israel not only weaponises humanitarian aid, but also criminalises those who deliver it
3 Comments
Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.