Every Palestinian child in Gaza has a story of exposure to unimaginable Israeli military violence, including killings, traumatic injuries, mass displacement, hunger, destruction of whole neighborhoods, and separation from family members, which leaves lasting scars and trauma. No child should have to endure such burdens.

According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), every child in Gaza–approximately one million children–will require mental health and psychosocial support.

https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/unaccompanied/

“Children in Gaza are dying, not just from the bombs, bullets and shells that strike them,” but also because, when they survive, “they are then prevented from leaving Gaza to receive the urgent care that would save their lives,” stressed UNICEF Spokesperson, James Elder, on 25 October. Since the Rafah crossing closed on 7 May, only 127 children – many suffering from head trauma, amputations, burns, cancer, and severe malnutrition – have been allowed to medically evacuate outside Gaza. Prior to the closure, between 1 January and 7 May, 296 children were medically evacuated abroad. UNICEF, appalled that “figures have failed to stir those with power to act,” shared the stories of three of the many children trapped in Gaza: a twelve-year-old girl needing urgent bone surgery after severe facial injuries (medical evacuation denied four times); a six-month-old with muscle cancer and severe malnutrition, with a tube inserted in his kidney, awaiting evacuation for two months in a tent; and a four-year-old girl who lost a leg and fingers, sustained fourth-degree burns, and risks further amputations of her hand and the other leg without immediate evacuation. The last case was only approved for medical evacuation at the end of October, with no set date for departure, after her mother, whose medical evacuation had been denied, died of fourth degree burns and severe blood poisoning on 23 October. Overall, WHO estimates that 14,000 patients are in urgent need of medical evacuation outside Gaza, with only 39 per cent of all medical evacuation requests approved by the Israeli authorities since October 2023, and just 33 per cent of patients having physically left the Strip. Since the closure of the Rafah crossing, only 229 patients, along with 316 companions, have been exceptionally evacuated on six occasions, with WHO continuing to appeal for the immediate restoration of medical corridors to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as to Egypt and Jordan, from where patients could be transferred onwards as needed.  

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Humanitarian Situation Update #233, Gaza Strip, Oct 29, 2024