Gaza's Children: Trapped in a Cycle of Suffering

NEW YORK (March 26, 2024) – “Today I would like to speak about two major issues that people here in Gaza say are central to their survival. The safety of those in Rafah, and aid delivery.

“Today Rafah is unrecognizable because of the congestion, and tents on streets corners and sandy plots. People sleep in the streets, in public buildings, in any other available empty space. The global standards for humanitarian emergencies say there should be a maximum of 20 people using one toilet. In Rafah, there is approximately one toilet for every 850 people. For showers, it’s four times that number - one shower for every 3600 people. This is a hellish disregard for basic human needs and dignity.

“Those same standards say people need 15 litres of water each, daily, and an absolute minimum of three litres just to survive. When I was here in November, families and children in the Gaza Strip were relying on three liters or less of water per person per day. Today, on average, households surveyed had access to less than one litre of safe water per person per day.

“Neighbouring Khan Yunis is also unrecognizable, though for a different reason – it barely exists anymore. In my 20years with the United Nations I have never seen such devastation. Just chaos and ruin, with rubble and debris scattered in every single direction. Utter annihilation.

Moving around those streets, I was overwhelmed by loss.

“Which takes us back to Rafah. And the endless talk of a large-scale military operation in Rafah. Rafah is a city of children. 600,000 girls and boys there. A military offensive in Rafah? “Offensive” is the right word. Rafah - home to some of Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets and water systems.

“And then there is the north. Yesterday I was again in Jabalia. Tens of thousands of people crowd the streets, placing their hand to their mouth - that universal sign for hunger.

“When I came into the Gaza Strip a week ago, there were hundreds of trucks with lifesaving humanitarian aid, waiting to get to people in urgent need, but on the wrong side of the border. Hundreds of UN/INGO trucks are currently backlogged waiting to enter Gaza.

“Remembering, last week’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) noted famine is imminent in northern Gaza. Gaza now has the largest percentage of a population, anywhere, to receive its most severe rating since the body began reporting in 2004.

“Before this war, wasting in the Gaza Strip was rare with less than one per cent of children under 5 years of age acutely malnourished. Today one in three children under 2yrs are acutely malnourished. Clearly the north needs massive amounts of food and nutrition treatments, urgently. But let’s be clear – our efforts to provide that aid are being hampered.

“There is an existing old crossing point, Erez, that could be used that is 10minutes from those facing famine. 10 minutes. Open that and we could turn this humanitarian crisis in the north around in a matter of days. But it remains closed.

“Between 1 - 22 March, one-quarter of 40 humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza were denied. UNRWA is now blocked from delivering food to the north, and yet 50% of food going to the north was delivered by UNRWA.

“Let’s be clear: Lifesaving aid is being obstructed. Lives are being lost. Dignity is being denied.

“The deprivation, the forced desperation, means despair pervades the population. And people's nerves are shattered amid unrelenting attacks.

“People often ask if there is still hope. Everything is at extremes here, and that question is no different. On one hand, a mother will tell me that she’s lost loved ones, her home and her ability to regularly feed her children; all she has left is hope. Then yesterday, UNICEF sat with adolescents, several of whom said, they are so desperate for their nightmare to end, that they hoped to be killed.

“The unspeakable is regularly said in Gaza. From teenage girls hoping they are killed; to being told a child is the last survivor from their entire family. Such horror is no longer unique here.

“Amid it all, so many brave, generous and tireless Palestinians continue to support one another. And sister UN agencies and UNICEF continue. For UNICEF, we persist for every child. Water, protection, nutrition, shelter. UNICEF is here.

“As we heard yesterday: the ceasefire must be substantive, not symbolic. The hostages must go home. The people of Gaza must be allowed to live.

“In the three months between my visits, every horrific number rose dramatically. Gaza has shattered humanity's records for its darkest chapters. Humanity must now urgently write a different chapter.”

Notes for editors:

Multimedia materials available here:

Gaza Crisis https://weshare.unicef.org/Package/2AM408LWBFJ8

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About UNICEF
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to pursue a more equitable world for every child. UNICEF has helped save more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization, by providing health care and immunizations, safe water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more.

UNICEF USA advances the global mission of UNICEF by rallying the American public to support the world’s most vulnerable children. Together, we are working toward a world that upholds the rights of all children and helps every child thrive. For more information, visit www.unicefusa.org.

For more information please contact:
Jenna Buraczenski, UNICEF USA, (917) 720-1432, jburaczenski@unicefusa.org