Children in Gaza are cold, hungry, sick and traumatised. They cannot meet their basic nutritional needs and their dire living conditions continue to put their lives at risk.

 

Every small effort to save a child’s life is undone by fierce devastation.

 

For over two years children have been at the sharp edge of this nightmare, with over 20,000 Killed, and thousands more injured.

 

High levels of malnutrition continue to endanger the lives and wellbeing, compounded by the onset of winter weather accelerating the spread of disease and increasing the risk of death among the most vulnerable children.

 

Nutrition screenings conducted recently by UNICEF and partners identified almost 9,300 children under 5 years of age with acute malnutrition in October, down from 11,746 children in September and 14,363 children in August.

 

While this downward trend demonstrates progress in treating and preventing acute malnutrition among children in Gaza, October still marks one of the highest monthly admissions rates on record, and is nearly five times higher than in February 2025, during the previous ceasefire.

 

“Despite progress, thousands of children under the age of five remain acutely malnourished in Gaza, while many more lack proper shelter, sanitation and protection against winter,” on November 28, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said: “Too many children in Gaza are still facing hunger, illness and exposure to cold temperatures, conditions that are putting their lives at risk. Every minute counts to protect these children.”

 

As the world celebrated on November 20 children’s day, in Gaza the reality for over a million children is fear, utter deprivation and unimaginable suffering.

 

These children, have so little and yet continue to lose more, day by day.

 

Israeli forces in Gaza continue to kill and maim people of all ages in the shattered enclave despite an agreed ceasefire, UN agencies said.

 

Freezing temperatures and heavy rainfall are worsening already dire living conditions for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians mostly women and children across the Strip.

 

Almost two children have been killed every day in conflict-related incidents in Gaza since the ceasefire began, UNICEF warned on November 21, saying the violence has not stopped despite an agreement intended to halt the killing.

 

Speaking to journalists in Geneva, spokesperson Ricardo Pires said: "Since 11th of October, while the ceasefire has been in effect, at least 67 children have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the Gaza Strip, dozens more have been injured."

 

He said this represented "an average of almost two children killed every day since the ceasefire took effect and the agreement that the killing would stop was finally achieved."

 

Pires stressed that behind every number is a child whose life was violently cut short, reiterating that these are not mere statistics.

 

He recounted what UNICEF teams have been witnessing on the ground, children sleeping outdoors with amputations, and others left orphaned and shaking with fear as they survive in flooded, makeshift shelters stripped of dignity.

 

"I saw this myself when I was last there in August. The reality imposed on Gaza remains brutally simple. There is no safe place for them, and the world cannot continue to normalize their suffering," he stressed.

 

Besides, he said the UN agency despite expanding its operations, its efforts remain insufficient.

 

"Could do a lot more if the aid that is really needed was entering faster", he explained.

 

Warning of winter conditions and compounding risks for hundreds of thousands of displaced children living in shelters, Pires warned that "the stakes are incredibly high" as "the new season is a threat multiplier."

 

Children have "no heating, no insulation, and too few blankets," he said. "Respiratory infections are on the rise, while contaminated water fuels the spread of diarrhea."

 

He added that “children continue to clamber over broken rubble barefoot.”

 

"Too many children have already paid the highest price, too many are still paying it, even under a ceasefire.

 

The world promised them it (war) would stop and we would protect them," he said and urged: "Now we must act like it."

 

On its part, Save the Children has warned that as the winter rains began in Gaza, children are sleeping on the bare ground with no shelter, in flimsy shorts and t-shirts that are sodden with sewage water after their tents flooded in a weekend of heavy rains, putting them at risk of disease.

 

“With many children having no shoes or change of clothes and the sanitation system attacked and overwhelmed, the threat of disease is looming,” the organization stated.

 

According to data from the shelter cluster of aid organizations in Gaza, more than two thirds of Gaza’s children – about 700,000 – are exposed to similar risks, living in tents that are falling apart after two years of bombardment and displacement, it said.

 

Save the Children also cautioned that without tools and equipment, people are unable to start repairs to homes and many are scared to move due to unexploded ordinance, already causing child casualties, or the fear of further airstrikes.

 

With children in Gaza already at great risk of malnutrition and illnesses like diarrhea and pneumonia, cold temperatures can be deadly, it warned. At least 14 children, including newborn babies, died of hypothermia in the past two winters, the organization said, citing Gaza’s Government Media Office.

 

“Children and families have woken up submerged in sewage water. For the third winter now since the start of intense Israeli bombardment in October 2023, they are desperate not just for a lasting ceasefire but for secure, safe and warm places to sleep,” Ahmad Alhendawi, Regional Director for Save the Children in the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, said.

 

“These tents that have been reduced to wrecked bits of material are not able to withstand the wind and the rain and are not able to protect children from illnesses. We have already seen at least 14 children die due to hypothermia over the past two winters – this cannot happen again,” he added.

 

Over the past decades, the Palestinian child has remained one of the most vulnerable groups facing Israeli violations, whether through killing, injury, starvation, denial of education, or night raids.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Nov. 20 that children in Gaza will need far longer to recover from the trauma of two years of violence, despite the temporary calm brought by the current ceasefire.

 

Marking World Children’s Day, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pause in fighting has offered “moments of quiet” for children who have endured bombardment, displacement and loss.

 

“The fragile ceasefire has given children a chance to breathe, connect, play and even start to heal,” Ghebreyesus said on US social media company X. “But trauma, injury, grief, and shattered childhoods will take far longer to heal," he said.

 

Moreover, he stressed that emotional and physical wounds remain severe even as hostilities subside, urging full respect for the ceasefire and calling for efforts that lead to “lasting peace” to ensure the safety and well-being of Gaza’s youngest generation.