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international rescue committee
Israeli Assault Has Left 50,000+ Gaza Kids Orphaned or Separated From Parents: Report
"In Gaza, children are the most vulnerable group, and their basic needs, especially their sense of safety, have become non-existent," said one relief worker.
Oct 09, 2024
The International Rescue Committee said Wednesday that the number of children who have been orphaned or separated from their parents is likely three times higher than the amount estimated by the United Nations earlier this year, with thousands of children caught up in the chaos of escalating Israeli attacks and evacuation orders in recent months.
Official estimates of orphaned or unaccompanied children range from about 17,000-19,000, but the IRC said that "based on previous experience of other crises," the number is likely as high as 51,000.
The IRC said that the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) continued assault on Gaza, where it has repeatedly attacked civilian infrastructure and so-called "humanitarian zones"—in many cases with U.S. weapons—risks creating a "forgotten generation."
The group's report came out as IDF attacks on northern Gaza entered their fifth day, forcing thousands of people to flee to the supposed safe zone of Al-Mawasi, which has been targeted repeatedly by Israel in recent months. Dozens of people have been killed in the IDF's recent escalation in the north.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) also reported that at least seven schools being used as shelters for displaced people had been evacuated due to Israeli attacks.
Along with evacuations, the arrests of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have exacerbated the rise in the number of unaccompanied children, said the IRC.
The group said its humanitarian workers have encountered children living alone in hospitals and that unaccompanied and orphaned children are at high risk for exploitation, child labor, and starvation, especially as Gaza's entire population of 2.3 million people faces acute food insecurity.
"In Gaza, children are the most vulnerable group, and their basic needs, especially their sense of safety, have become non-existent," said Faten Abu Mousa, child protection manager for the IRC in Gaza.
"Children in Gaza cannot wait any longer, prolonged restrictions on humanitarian aid and continued fighting means that a generation of children will now experience life-long health and developmental issues."
The group said it has partially focused its work on providing mental health and other support services to children, especially those who have lost or been separated from their parents or caregivers.
Even before Israel's latest escalation in Gaza, which passed the one-year mark on Monday, at least half a million children in the enclave were in need of mental health and psycho-social support, said the IRC.
"Now, the burden of witnessing profoundly distressing events, multiple displacements, and lack of safety means that every child, parent, and caregiver in Gaza is experiencing trauma, which could require long-term mental health and psycho-social support," said the organization.
The IRC warned that its aid teams have seen "increased rates of severe and acute malnutrition in children under five" across Gaza with humanitarian operations in northern Gaza "severely restricted" due to the current wave of attacks.
"Even if a child survives acute malnutrition, they will often face long-term health impacts, and require lifelong support," said the group, warning of the risk of stunting—when a child's growth and cognitive development are behind for their age—and wasting, when a child's weight is too low for their height due to rapid weight loss from lack of nutrition.
"In these cases, the child's risk of death is more than 11 times higher than that of a healthy child especially because their weakened bodies are not able to fight off common diseases," said the IRC.
Children across the enclave have also missed an entire of year of schooling, and the trauma and destruction of Israel's bombardment is likely to set back children's education for up to five years in Gaza, where education and high literacy rates have long been a source of pride.
"Children are bearing the brunt of this war, and it's clear that without an immediate and lasting cease-fire in sight, the long-term impacts will only become greater," said Bart Witteveen, IRC country director for the occupied Palestinian territory. "The international community must act immediately to safeguard children, not just in the immediate term, but also taking into account their long-term health needs, whether related to mental health, healthcare, or education. Children in Gaza cannot wait any longer, prolonged restrictions on humanitarian aid and continued fighting means that a generation of children will now experience life-long health and developmental issues."
Humanitarian groups have called for a lasting cease-fire in Gaza for a year, but the conflict has spread to other parts of the Middle East in recent weeks, with Israel invading Lebanon last month and killing more than 2,100 people there in recent attacks, Iran retaliating against Israel last week, and some U.S. lawmakers pushing for an attack on Iran.
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UNRWA Says There Is 'Nowhere to Go' as Israel Orders Evacuation of Gaza Safe Zones
"People remain trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction on a staggering scale," the U.N. agency wrote on social media.
Aug 16, 2024
Following a series of evacuation orders this week, Israeli forces issued another on Friday for areas in central and southern Gaza, including "safe zones," leaving Palestinian families gripped with fear and with "nowhere to go," according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Israel's Arabic spokesperson announced on social media that people in six neighborhood blocks in various towns, several of which were part of a proclaimed humanitarian zone, must "immediately move," leading to a scramble of evacuations in those areas.
"Once again, fear spreads as families have nowhere to go," UNRWA wrote on social media. "People remain trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction on a staggering scale."
#Gaza: New evacuation orders have been issued by Israeli authorities, even inside the so-called “humanitarian zone”.
Once again, fear spreads as families have nowhere to go. People remain trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction on a staggering scale. pic.twitter.com/Myi6z6Ix87
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 16, 2024
Friday's evacuation orders were for areas in eastern Deir el-Balah, al-Qarara, al-Mawasi, al-Jalaa, Hamad City, and Nasser, Al Jazeerareported.
An Israeli military strike on al-Mawasi, previously a humanitarian zone though long the target of Israeli strikes, killed four Palestinians including three children, the news outlet reported on Friday.
The Israeli army said Hamas had used the areas to fire mortar and rocket attacks, and explained that it had issued warning flyers and text message alerts to reduce the impact on the Palestinian civilian population, according toReuters.
Bombings and evacuations have continued this week—at least 80 Palestinians were killed in a strike on a school-turned-shelter on Sunday—even as peace talks proceeded in Doha, Qatar. A two-day session of talks finished Friday, with the United States, Egypt, and Qatar saying progress was made and they hoped to seal a deal between Israel and Hamas next week. Hamas didn't directly participate in this week's talks because the militant Palestinian group said Israel had added new demands to a proposal it had already agreed to in principle.
The death toll of Palestinians during the 10-month war, based on figures from Gaza's health ministry, reached 40,000 this week—what the U.N. called a "dark milestone."
"Most of the dead are women and children," U.N. rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement. "This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war."
"On average, about 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 10 months," he added, saying the "scale of the Israeli military's destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, and places of worship [is] deeply shocking."
Türk said that both Israel and armed Palestinian groups including Hamas had committed serious violations of international humanitarian law. The armed Palestinian groups killed more than 1,100 Israelis in a shocking and horrifying massacre in southern Israel on October 7 in which they also took some 250 hostages.
Israel's sustained assault on Gaza over the last 10 months has not only killed a disproportionate number of children but also displaced most of those who've survived—and separated many from their families.
A report released Friday by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) documents the scale of the separation crisis and its psychological toll on unaccompanied children. UNICEF estimates that roughly 17,000 Gazan children are unaccompanied, but the IRC warns that the real figure may be much higher.
Unaccompanied youth are at risk of labor exploitation, starvation, and mental health problems that can plague them for the rest of their lives. Gazan children, shocked by the war, are "clinging to others during loud sounds, wetting the bed, having nightmares, and are wanting to sleep under the bed to feel secure," the report says.
The Associated Pressreported Tuesday that Israeli strikes were leaving "children without parents and parents without children," and has previously reported that the war has wiped out entire Palestinian extended families.
Israeli violence against Palestinians has not been restricted to Gaza. Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank town of Jit on Thursday night, setting fire to cars and houses, killing one Palestinian man and seriously injuring another. Jack Lew, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, said he was "appalled" by the attack and the perpetrators should be held accountable, but Israeli human rights group B'Tselem responded on social media by saying that the Israeli state and its leadership should be held accountable.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Wednesday reported that it had recorded about 1,250 settler attacks on Palestinians since October 7. The settlements are illegal under international law, according to the International Court of Justice.
The push for a peace deal is aimed not just at ending the carnage in Gaza and defusing West Bank tensions but also preventing a wider war in the Middle East. Israel is bracing for retaliation from Iran and Hezbollah after it conducted assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Tehran and Beirut in late July.
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'Beyond Comprehension': Medical Team Reports Starvation, Infections at Gaza Hospital
"We're doing everything we can, navigating through critical shortages and working with very limited resources, to save lives amidst this dire situation."
Mar 25, 2024
Members of an emergency medical team that has treated patients at a hospital in southern Gaza in recent weeks said Monday that the horrors they've witnessed there are "unimaginable," from worsening malnutrition to deadly infections stemming from lack of healthcare equipment.
The team formed by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) has been working at the European Hospital near Khan Younis, a city decimated by Israeli bombing. At least two hospitals in the city are currently under siege by Israeli forces, which have killed more than 32,000 Gazans and injured tens of thousands more in less than six months.
"The situation we're facing is beyond comprehension," said Arvind Das, IRC's Gaza team lead. "Continuous Israeli military operations near hospitals are making an already tense situation even worse for those seeking shelter or medical help, pushing the healthcare system to the brink of collapse."
"Despite the relentless efforts of our medical teams, the infrastructure necessary to deliver optimal medical care has been severely compromised by bombing, stringent restrictions on the entry of aid including medical supplies, and the overwhelming surge in needs," Das added. "We're doing everything we can, navigating through critical shortages and working with very limited resources, to save lives amidst this dire situation."
Not a single hospital in the Gaza Strip is fully functional after months of Israeli attacks, and the dozen that are partially operating are well beyond capacity, with patients and displaced people filling the hallways and outskirts of the facilities. The United Nations' special rapporteur on the right to health has accused Israel's military of waging an "unrelenting war" on Gaza's medical system.
Dr. Konstantina Ilia Karydi, an anesthetist with the emergency medical team, said Monday that the European Hospital "had an original capacity of just 200 beds, and at the moment it has expanded to 1,000 beds."
"There are around 22,000 people that have been displaced from other parts of Gaza sheltering in the corridors and in tents inside the hospital, because people feel that it's safer to be here than anywhere else," said Karydi.
"We worked around the challenges we faced and managed in a different way, but the staff here are overwhelmed."
MAP said in a statement that the medical team's surgeons "completed successful complex vascular and orthopedic surgeries on patients" at the hospital, but some "later died due to infections in the hospitals and the inability to provide post-operative care."
"This is due to the intense security situation that forced healthcare workers to evacuate hospitals and hindered their access," said MAP. "Moreover, significant damage to hospital infrastructure and facilities, coupled with a complete shortage of equipment and medicine—largely due to Israel's restrictions on medical aid entry into Gaza—severely impacted the ability to provide necessary care."
Dr. Husam Basheer, an orthopedic surgeon with the emergency medical team, stressed that healthcare workers in the territory are "managing with the bare minimum of resources," lacking even basic supplies such as gauze.
"We worked around the challenges we faced and managed in a different way," said Basheer, "but the staff here are overwhelmed."
The medical team's report added to the abundance of harrowing accounts from healthcare personnel on the devastating conditions inside Gaza's hospitals, many of which have been shelled and raided—in some cases repeatedly—by Israeli forces.
Al Jazeerareported Monday that the Israeli military has "surrounded the al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in southern Gaza, while pressing on with their siege of Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the strip."
"Military vehicles, tanks, and attack drones are encircling these two facilities," Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud reported. "They're also blocking the entrance with piles of sand, preventing medical staff, patients, and injured people inside from leaving safely and constantly failing to provide a safe corridor for people and evacuees trapped inside the hospital."
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, responded with alarm Monday to reports that Israeli forces killed a Palestinian Red Crescent Society volunteer and a displaced person sheltering at al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.
"Another reported attack on al-Amal hospital in Gaza, another situation where patients and health workers are in great jeopardy," Tedros wrote on social media. "We appeal for their immediate protection, and repeat our call for a cease-fire."
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