Your generous donation could 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. It can also help create lasting change through longer term programmes to alleviate poverty and the chronic impact of climate change.
Six months after the ceasefire - children are still waiting
The ceasefire agreement marked a moment of hope for children in Gaza. But six months on, the reality on the ground remains devastating.
The crossing situation means aid is still not reaching children at the scale required. Since February 2025, Israeli authorities closed all crossings into Gaza. While Kerem Shalom has since partially reopened and Rafah crossing reopened for limited medical evacuations in March, aid is still entering at a fraction of what children need. All crossings must be fully operational so humanitarian organisations can reach children who have lost their homes and loved ones and are struggling with the threat of famine.
The situation is devastating, children are starving, and a famine has been officially declared in parts of the Gaza strip. Over 100 children have died from starvation. They are being starved by design. Families need help now more than ever, and our staff are ready to respond.
Children in Gaza are terrified; terrified they may be killed at any moment; terrified that they may not be able to find any more food or water to survive.
Donate now to support our lifechanging work, in Gaza and around the world. Together we can be there for children when they need us most.
Shurouq*, 31, is a Save the Children staff member in Gaza. She lost her husband in the first weeks of the war. She and her 3-year-old daughter, Karmel*, have been displaced many times. Six months into the ceasefire, this is what she told us:
"We are still living in a grey city. Grey dominates everything, from the buildings to the streets to the dust on our faces. It even dominates our mood and futures. We feel like we are living half in war and half in peace because nothing is happening on the ground to show us that there is a way to a brighter future."
She describes hearing bombs still. An attack one street away from where she was with her daughter. Her destroyed home, which she passes every day on the way to work - a room she designed for her daughter that her daughter has never slept in.
"There must be an increase in aid and goods entering Gaza, and principled reconstruction must begin as soon as possible," she says. "My appeal is to see improvements that show us there is truly a way towards a brighter future - for me, for my daughter, and for all of us."
Winter weather is impacting families living in tents in Gaza. Save the Children is distributing winter kits containing warm clothes, as well as hygiene kits with essential hygiene items to families.
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Why monthly donations are important
Now, more than ever, children in Gaza and around the world need your help.
Donations during this emergency have allowed us to act fast. But by giving monthly, you can help us be by a child's side within days, whenever disaster strikes.
Your monthly gift will mean that our teams can provide continuous support, offering vital food, healthcare and education to children in urgent need around the world. It also allows us to support children as they move out of survival mode and begin to start living again.
With a monthly donation, you can make a lasting impact on the lives of children in Gaza and around the world.
What's happening in Gaza
In Gaza, children have been paying the heaviest price for a war they’ve played no part in.
Tens of thousands of children have been killed by bombs and bullets. More have lost their homes and loved ones.
Children are meant to be off limits in war.
They have specific vulnerabilities, rights and obligations owed to them. Children are uniquely vulnerable to violence, with a significantly lower threshold for harm compared to adults. With critical physical and mental development milestones throughout childhood, the harm children in Gaza face will have long-term and potentially irreversible impacts, undermining their futures and the future of Palestinian society as a whole.
Children in Gaza are now in their third year of missing out on school. We’re at risk of seeing a “lost" generation emerge in Gaza. The war has decimated children’s right to education, while starvation and trauma have eradicated any sense of a ‘normal’ childhood and is increasing the risks of them being exposed to exploitation and abuse. Palestinian children have lost their hope in the future.
60% of school-aged children lack access to some form of in-person learning, andover 335,000 children under five face severe developmental delays as early childhood services have collapsed. Formal education will not likely resume in Gaza until schools are rehabilitated and rebuilt.
Israeli authorities must allow equipment and machinery to enter. Save the Children continue to expand the number of temporary learning spaces to reach more children.
Our CEO on the plight of Gaza's children
In August 2025, famine was confirmed in the Gaza governorate through the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.
Our CEO said: “Today’s confirmation of famine in Gaza by the IPC is the official stamp on a tragedy we have been warning about for months. The UK - and Israel's other allies - cannot say they didn’t know this would happen. We have all watched this disaster play out on our screens. The UK public is rightly outraged.
This is a man-made famine that was entirely preventable. All evidence points to one conclusion - starvation is being used as a weapon of war, and humanitarian aid has been used as an instrument of occupation.
The UK Government cannot turn away. To refuse to act is to be complicit.
This siege and the weaponisation of aid must end. Essential supplies must flow without hinderance on political grounds. The UK must suspend all arms transfers to Israel, including components for F-35 fighter jets used to rain terror on civilians. The UK must act against those that are responsible for these atrocities."
Moazzam Malik, CEO Save the Children UK
Your donation will help vulnerable children wherever the need is greatest.
What we're doing to help children
Our incredible supporters have not let the world forget Gaza’s children – giving what they can and speaking out for a ceasefire. With their support, Save the Children has been able to reach more than 1.6 million people in Gaza. Supporting families with clean water and cash assistance to help them survive, as well as healthcare clinics and mother and baby areas.
While operations in Gaza are becoming more challenging by the day, Save the Children remains committed to providing lifesaving aid to the children of Gaza. Working with local partner organisations, we are:
- Running two primary health care centres to provide maternal and newborn care and screening and treating children for acute malnutrition
- Carrying out water trucking so that families have safe water to drink
- Running child friendly spaces to ensure children have a safe space to play, receive psychosocial support and escape from the traumatic experiences they’re enduring
- Providing cash to families so they can buy food and any other essentials
Save the Children staff in Egypt prepare supplies for Gaza
The mental health emergency we can't ignore
Nearly 2.5 years into the war, children in our child-friendly spaces are playing games they call "war" - re-enacting bombings, pretending to throw missiles, acting out being dead. A 3-year-old was seen holding a funeral for her doll. This is what prolonged exposure to extreme violence does to children.
Save the Children has reached nearly 15,000 children through mental health and psychosocial support in Gaza since October 2023. But without sustained funding and access, children who have experienced this level of trauma face long-lasting impacts for months and years to come.
Your support helps us keep child-friendly spaces open, keep counsellors working, and keep children connected to some sense of safety and normality - even in the most impossible circumstances.
With your support, we’ll be there for many more children, for as long as they need us, so they can start to recover and see beyond tomorrow.
Your donation will help vulnerable children wherever the need is greatest.
We're here for the long haul
We're ready to respond and scale up the moment safe access allows. We've got supplies positioned at the border, and our teams are prepared to deliver immediate lifesaving aid – food, water, medical care – as well as longer-term support like safe spaces and psychological support to help children on the long road to recovery.
We’ll set up temporary learning centres and safe spaces for children to play and be children again. We’ll provide individual and group counselling to children subjected to months of terrifying violence. And we stand ready to help rebuild Gaza’s shattered education system.
Today, the future for Gaza’s children hangs in the balance. It’s a moment of hope, but also one still filled with enourmous challenges.
No matter what, we’ll be there for Gaza’s children.
With your support, we’ll deliver lifesaving support for as long as it’s needed.
By donating, you can make sure Save the Children is exactly where we need to be to stand with children in crisis.
Your donation will help vulnerable children wherever the need is greatest.
Meet Baby Lana
When Tima* found out she was pregnant in July 2023, she was excited to be having her second child and started to think about how she would spoil her new baby.
Then in October 2023, the war in Gaza started and everything changed. Tima and her family were displaced multiple times as fighting expanded across the Gaza strip. They now live in a tent in central Gaza.
Tima was very worried about where she would give birth safely, given the continuous attacks on healthcare facilities during the war.
Save the Children’s Emergency Health Unit have set up a maternity unit in the Gaza Strip. Baby Lana* arrived on 26 April 2024 and was the first baby to be born at the new maternity unit.
Although baby Lana was healthy when she left the hospital, after three days she became unwell. Tima was quick to bring her daughter back to the hospital where she was admitted. Lana had contracted sepsis due to the tough living conditions, including very limited access to clean water and washing facilities.
If left untreated, sepsis can easily kill a baby. However, thanks to Tima’s quick actions, a course of antibiotics and close monitoring in the inpatient facility, baby Lana has made a full recovery.
*Names changed to protect their identity
