Gaza Crisis

Months of unrelenting fighting and deprivation in Gaza have left thousands of children dead, while those who survive face continued war, siege, hunger and unimaginable loss.

Children are dying from starvation and disease at the highest rate the world has ever seen. Families are being forced to forage for scraps of food left by rats and are eating leaves out of desperation.

Our teams have been working around the clock to get vital supplies to families. But time is running out.

Nearly all children in Gaza are at imminent risk of famine. And after over six months of siege and bombing, children's mental health in Gaza is being pushed beyond breaking point.

We urgently need your support. Your generous donation to our Emergency Fund can provide children and families affected by the war in Gaza, as well as other disasters across the world, with life-saving essentials like food, water and crucial mental health support.

Since 7 October we've reached over 337,000 people, including 173,000 children, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Health

• We’re distributing medical supplies across Rafah
• Working with local partners, we’ve distributed hygiene products
• Our Emergency Health Unit has been planning their response to support the needs in Gaza
• In Egypt, we’re supporting hospitals and ambulances receiving medical evacuees from Gaza, including assistance for premature babies.

Nutrition

• We’re distributing food parcels and drinking water
• We’ve trained community volunteers on screening of children under 5 for malnutrition, infant and young child feeding practices in emergency and how to identify children with danger signs and to refer them to the nearest medical center or health facility
• We’re assessing 10 shelters to identify where there are gaps for nutrition services as well as to avoid duplication of services already provided
• We’ve delivered breastfeeding support kits and breast milk substitute kits

Shelter

• We’ve distributed shelter kits, including mattresses, plastic mats and bedding sets

Mental health support

• We've provided mental health and psychosocial support to children and their families and we’re delivering cash to families to help them to buy essentials
• In Egypt, we’re training frontline staff on child safeguarding as well as mental health and psychosocial support.

Education

• We have been working on a plan for children in Gaza to restart their education.

We're also responding to growing needs in the West Bank and Lebanon, and gearing up our teams across the region to prepare for any rise in children's needs as the situation evolves.

We can do more and we are ready to scale up our response as soon as more access is possible.

This response will include:

• distributing more essential supplies, such as water, food, toiletries, cooking utensils, and other household essentials
• delivering further Mental Health and Psychosocial Support services for children and caregivers
• setting up child friendly spaces so children have a safe space to play and recover
• distributing warm clothes and blankets, as well as more cash and vouchers so families can buy food, medicines and any other essentials.
• providing fuel and water infrastructure for hospitals and distributing water storage tanks
• ensuring children continue to have access to education, by setting up temporary learning spaces and repairing damaged schools
• identifying the most at-risk children for referrals to protection related services
• deploying our Emergency Health Unit and procuring essential medical equipment

But we can’t do it without your help. Donate to our Emergency Fund today and help us reach children caught up in disasters around the world.

The conditions needed to scale-up humanitarian assistance in Gaza are currently not being met and humanitarian aid is being used as a weapon of war. An adequate humanitarian response is not possible without an immediate and definitive ceasefire.

Children are terrified, have been forced from their homes, and are cut off from an education. Civilians can never be targeted and there are no circumstances under international humanitarian law in which this can be ignored. The killing and maiming of children, along with attacks on schools and hospitals, is a grave violation, and those responsible should be held to account for their actions. 

All children captured must be released immediately and unconditionally. Civilians, and infrastructure essential for their lives, such as hospitals and schools, must be spared from the violence.  

The only way to truly protect children’s lives is to halt this violence. 

Find out more about the conflict:

• BBC: History of the conflict explained
• Al Jazeera: What’s the Israel-Palestine conflict about? A simple guide
• Guardian: What are the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict?
• PBS: The complicated history of conflict between Israel and Palestinians