The ongoing Israeli war in Gaza, which began on October 7, continues to cast a heavy burden on all residents of the besieged Palestinian enclave, especially children. The situation has gone from “catastrophic to near-total collapse,” according to Ted Chaiban, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, following a three-day visit to Gaza. He confirmed that children and their families are suffering from “some of the worst conditions” he has ever seen.
Chaiban, who visited Gaza two months ago, added that more than 1.9 million people, or about 85% of Gaza’s population, are now displaced, including many who have been displaced several times. Over one million of them are in Rafah. He also pointed out the difficulty of accommodating this huge number of civilians at the border, emphasizing that the conditions they live in are inhumane, with scarce water and unavoidable poor sanitation.
Furthermore, he explained that the cold and rain this week have caused rivers of waste.
Chaiban stressed that “the little available food does not meet the unique nutritional needs of children, leaving thousands suffering from malnutrition and illness.” He continued, “This is just a stark deterioration in the conditions of Gaza’s children. If this decline continues, we may see deaths resulting from random conflict exacerbated by deaths from disease and hunger. We need a significant breakthrough.”
Regarding the situation in northern Gaza, Chaiban said that approximately 250,000 to 300,000 people are not getting clean water and barely any food. “In the first two weeks of January, only seven out of 29 planned aid shipments successfully reached their destinations in northern Gaza. No UNICEF convoy has been able to reach northern Gaza in 2024,” he concluded. “We cannot wait any longer for a humanitarian ceasefire to end the daily killing and injury of children and their families and to enable the urgent delivery of desperately needed aid.”
Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed the registration of 24 cases of hepatitis. He said that the inhumane conditions resulting from the Israeli attacks on the sector would lead to a greater spread of the disease. In a tweet on his “X” platform account last Thursday night, he stated that several thousand people could also be affected by jaundice due to hepatitis A infection. He warned that inhumane living conditions, such as the lack of clean water and clean toilets, and difficulty maintaining general hygiene, would lead to a broader outbreak of the disease.
These warnings come as Israel insists on continuing the war that has entered its third month, amid restrictions on the entry of humanitarian and medical aid into the sector. This coincides with hints from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the possibility of the conflict continuing until the end of 2025, despite regional and international pressures. It is noteworthy that the war’s toll has so far reached more than 24,000 Palestinian deaths, most of them children and women, while the number of injured exceeds 60,000, according to Palestinian estimates.
