SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
unicef
Israeli Blockade Leaves 1 Million Children in Gaza Without Basic Necessities 'Yet Again': UNICEF
"My children are crying at home from hunger and I have nothing to give them," said one mother. "I can't afford to buy what we need. There's simply no way to survive."
Mar 17, 2025
After a four-day mission to the West Bank and Gaza, a top official for the United Nations' children's welfare agency on Sunday described the effects that Israel's blockade on all humanitarian aid into the latter territory has had on roughly 1 million children in recent weeks, and demanded that lifesaving essentials—currently "stalled just a few dozen kilometers outside the Gaza Strip"—be allowed into the enclave.
Edouard Beigbeder, Middle East and North Africa regional director for the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), said that during his most recent trip to Gaza he witnessed how "1 million children are living without the very basics they need to survive—yet again," following Israel's decision in early March to once again block all aid in a purported effort to pressure Hamas into accepting a U.S. hostage release plan.
The blocking of food, water, medications, and other essential supplies is a violation of "international humanitarian law," said Beigbeder.
"Civilians' essential needs must be met, and this requires facilitating the entry of lifesaving assistance whether or not there is a cease-fire in place," he said. "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 cease-fire."
Israel's blockade has left a water desalination plant in Khan Younis without electricity, allowing it to run at just 13% capacity and "depriving hundreds of thousands of people from drinkable water and sanitation services," said Beigbeder.
He particularly warned of the blockade's impact on some of Gaza's most vulnerable residents—premature newborns and children under the age of two who need access to lifesaving vaccines and medical equipment that have been languishing in delivery trucks just outside the Gaza Strip for two weeks.
UNICEF has managed to deliver 30 continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines to aid premature newborns with acute respiratory syndrome, but Beigbeder warned that "approximately 4,000 newborns are currently unable to access essential lifesaving care due to the major impact on medical facilities in the Gaza Strip."
"Every day without these ventilators, lives are lost, especially among vulnerable, premature newborns in the northern Gaza Strip," he said.
Beigbeder's warning came as the operator of 10 charity food kitchens in Gaza toldAl Jazeera that it has only been able to operate two distribution centers since Israel began blocking aid again following the cease-fire that began in January.
"We had 80 pots every day that we were serving to people," Omar Abuhammad, a coordinator with the Heroic Hearts organization, told the outlet. "Now we're working on about 20... As the main source of food for [people], we no longer have the ability to serve them."
Abuhammad said the organization had been able to serve about 40,000 Palestinians in Deir el-Balah each day before the newest blockade was imposed, but now it is only able to help 10,000 people daily.
Om Mahmoud, a displaced woman in Deir el-Balah, toldAl Jazeera that she "used to rely on this simple community kitchen for food, but now even they are struggling to feed us."
"My children are crying at home from hunger and I have nothing to give them," said Mahmoud. "I can't afford to buy what we need. There's simply no way to survive."
Beigbader said that on the four-day mission to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, "nearly all of the 2.4 million children" living there are being "affected in some way" by Israel's continued assaults.
"Some children live with tremendous fear or anxiety; others face the real consequences of deprivation of humanitarian assistance and protection, displacement, destruction, or death. All children must be protected," said Beigbader. "UNICEF continues to do everything we can to protect and support children in the state of Palestine. We are repairing water systems, running mental health sessions, setting up learning centers, and advocating constantly with decision makers for access and for the violence to cease. But this alone is not enough."
Israel has demanded the release of 11 living hostages captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in exchange for extending the cease-fire by 50 days and allowing aid into Gaza, but Hamas has objected to the U.S.-drafted proposal because it does not include a firm timeline for a permanent cease-fire.
As Israel has blocked humanitarian aid to pressure Hamas to accept the cease-fire extension, it has also launched strikes in Gaza, including a drone strike that killed three men who a witness in the Bureij refugee camp said were collecting firewood due to the lack of cooking gas stemming from the blockade.
Israel had claimed the men were planting roadside bombs.
A woman at the scene told Al Jazeera that "the young men were busy, not very far away from me, collecting firewood. But without warning, a missile hit them. Some other people were injured. We climbed a hill to try to help them, and we were shocked to see a quadcopter overhead. We are so terrified."
Hani Mahmoud ofAl Jazeera reported on Monday that "this is not the first time we're seeing this happen since the cease-fire began on January 19."
"Just now, a drone is hovering above in the western part of Gaza City," Mahmoud said. "It is buzzing and casting fear on the population. The streets have been emptied of people because of concerns over more attacks."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Israel Threatens to Open 'Gates of Hell' on Gaza to Force Hamas Hostage Release
"If Israel resumes its assault on Gaza, the Trump administration will own it—this is the legacy of its unconditional support for Israeli aggression," said one advocacy group.
Mar 03, 2025
As Israeli officials warned Monday of dire repercussions if Hamas did not release the remaining hostages it holds in Gaza, advocacy groups decried reporting that Israel is planning to obliterate a crumbling six-week cease-fire with a massive escalation against the already flattened Palestinian enclave.
Addressing the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamnin Netanyahu said Hamas, which governs Gaza, will face "consequences they cannot imagine" should it fail to free the dozens of Israeli and international hostages it kidnapped on October 7, 2023.
"We are preparing for the next stages of the war—on seven fronts," Netanyahu claimed, adding that "we will not stop until we achieve total victory—returning all our hostages, destroying Hamas' military and governing power, and ensuring Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel."
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz was even more blunt, vowing that "if Hamas does not release the hostages soon, the gates of Gaza will be locked, and the gates of hell will be opened—we will return to fighting, and they will face the [Israel Defense Forces] with forces and methods they have never encountered before."
These comments followed Sunday reporting by Israeli public broadcaster Kan that Israel is readying what it calls a "hell plan" to re-invade Gaza, renew the forced expulsion of its residents, and cut off the remaining water and electricity supply to a people already reeling from a 15-month onslaught and siege that's left most of Gaza in ruins; more than 170,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing; and over 2 million others displaced, starved, or sickened, according to local and international agencies.
"The latest reports of Israel preparing to resume its aggression against Gaza represent yet another blatant retreat from the original cease-fire terms that had been agreed upon by both parties," the Virginia-based advocacy group Americans for Justice in Palestine (AJP) Action said in a statement Monday.
The group continued:
The original agreement, established to halt 15 months of Israeli aggression and genocide, facilitated the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, increased humanitarian aid, and initiated a partial Israeli troop withdrawal. However, the proposed extension of the first stage of the cease-fire by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, aiming for a temporary truce over Ramadan and Passover, has been met with complications. Witkoff's new unreleased plan deviates from the framework negotiated for deescalation. Instead, it sets the stage for Israel to further entrench its occupation, siege, and genocide with full U.S. complicity and partnership.
Under Witkoff's proposal, Hamas would free half of its living hostages and the bodies of half of those who were killed or died since their abduction. Israeli officials say Hamas still has 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to still be alive.
"This moment directly results from the Trump administration's reckless and deliberate policy choices," AJP Action stressed. "[U.S. President Donald] Trump and his officials not only emboldened Israel's most extreme elements but also dismantled even the pretense of a U.S. commitment to a just resolution. If Israel resumes its assault on Gaza, the Trump administration will own it—this is the legacy of its unconditional support for Israeli aggression."
Israel's fresh threat came after it halted all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza following a Saturday decision by the country's Security Council, a move Hamas blasted as a "war crime" and cease-fire violation. Netanyahu claimed the cutoff was made "in full coordination" Trump and "his people."
United Nations Children's Fund Middle East and North Africa Director Edouard Beigbeder warned Monday that "the aid restrictions announced yesterday will severely compromise lifesaving operations for civilians."
"It is imperative that the cease-fire—a critical lifeline for children—remains in place, and that aid is allowed to flow freely so we can continue to scale up the humanitarian response," Beigbeder added.
Children and families across Gaza are struggling to survive without enough food, medicine or shelter. “The ceasefire must hold, and more aid must be allowed in to prevent further suffering and loss of life.” - Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF MENA Regional Director. Details: unicef.link/41kLyr7
[image or embed]
— UNICEF (@unicef.org) March 3, 2025 at 7:07 AM
However, a source familiar with ongoing cease-fire negotiations toldThe Jerusalem Post Monday that "nothing is currently moving on this front."
On the ground in Gaza, Palestinians continue to endure tremendous hardships—last week, local medical professionals said six infants died of hypothermia—including skyrocketing prices on essential items in scarce supply.
"Often, I find myself weighing up whether I should buy food items or buy blankets for sleeping," Hikmat al-Masri, a 44-year-old professor from Beit Lahia, toldThe Guardian Monday. "Both options are difficult and expensive."
Hassan Musa, a forcibly displaced father of eight from northern Gaza, told the British newspaper that "to subject innocent people to the deprivation of aid and to threaten them with cutting off water and food supplies is the height of injustice and criminality."
"Prices are rising without logic, making financial planning for the family nearly impossible," he added. "Even the aid we used to receive has stopped, which increases the fears of a return of famine to the north, after we thought we had overcome it."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Record Number of Children Living in Conflict Zones in 2024: UNICEF
"Children in war zones face a daily struggle for survival that deprives them of a childhood."
Dec 29, 2024
The record number of children living in conflict zones or forcibly displaced because of global wars "must not be the new normal," said the executive director of the United Nations' children's agency on Saturday.
Catherine Russell, who heads the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), released a sobering statement detailing the effects of conflicts and violence on children worldwide in 2024, revealing that more children than ever were estimated to be living in the midst of violent conflicts or forced to leave their homes due to war in the past year.
Over 473 million children—more than 1 in 6—were affected by conflicts in 2024, including in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and Haiti.
"By almost every measure, 2024 has been one of the worst years on record for children in conflict in UNICEF's history—both in terms of the number of children affected and the level of impact on their lives," said Russell. "A child growing up in a conflict zone is far more likely to be out of school, malnourished, or forced from their home—too often repeatedly—compared to a child living in places of peace... We cannot allow a generation of children to become collateral damage to the world's unchecked wars."
UNICEF said that the U.N. has not yet verified the number of child casualties in worldwide conflicts for 2024. But the latest available data, from 2023, shows a record 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children.
"With the overall upward trend in the number of grave violations—for example, thousands of children have been killed and injured in Gaza, and in Ukraine, the U.N. verified more child casualties during the first 9 months of 2024 than during all of 2023—this year is likely to see another increase," said UNICEF.
The percentage of children living in conflict zones across the globe has nearly doubled since the 1990s, when it stood at 10%.
The statistics also mean that a record number of children are having their rights violated, including by being forced to halt their educations, missing life-saving vaccines, losing access to routine healthcare, and being critically malnourished.
More than 52 million children were estimated to be out of school this year due to conflict, with educational infrastructure destroyed across Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Syria.
More than half a million people are estimated to be living in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phase 5 conditions—famine—which is defined as 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition, or populations seeing two to four deaths each day from starvation.
In the case of Gaza, Israel and the U.S.—which has backed the Israeli assault on the enclave that began in 2023—have vehemently denied that famine has taken hold, even as experts have reported on widespread starvation there.
About 40% of children who are unvaccinated or undervaccinated live in countries affected by conflict, where disruptions to sanitation services and proper nutrition can also make them especially vulnerable to life-threatening and preventable diseases.
Children are also disproportionately represented among global refugees. While children account for 30% of the global population, about 40% of the refugee population and nearly half of people who are internally displaced are children.
"Children in war zones face a daily struggle for survival that deprives them of a childhood," said Russell. “Their schools are bombed, homes destroyed, and families torn apart. They lose not only their safety and access to basic life-sustaining necessities, but also their chance to play, to learn, and to simply be children."
"As we look towards 2025," she said, "we must do more to turn the tide and save and improve the lives of children."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular