After two years of relentless war in Gaza, a pause in hostilities offers a fragile moment of hope after unimaginable suffering. This must become a definitive ceasefire – the only way to save lives and end the grave violations against Gaza’s children, who are facing starvation as malnutrition rates remain at famine level.
What our teams are witnessing in Gaza is catastrophic: around 65,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 20,000 children. Thousands more are missing, buried under the rubble that has replaced Gaza’s once lively streets. Nine out of 10 people in Gaza have been forcibly displaced - most of them multiple times - into increasingly shrinking pockets of land that cannot sustain human life. Children are still battling hunger, malnutrition and disease. And as winter approaches, families need safe shelter, warm clothes, and sanitation.
More than half a million people are starving. Famine is spreading. We urgently need more aid and medicine to enter Gaza to save lives.
“The world has been watching as children have suffered the unthinkable,” says Save the Children Australia CEO, Mat Tinkler. “And now, we have confirmation that hundreds of thousands are being slowly starved to death. None of us should accept this.”
No child should die simply because they don’t have access to food. But that is the reality for the children of Gaza – their lives and futures are at risk. We urgently need your support to protect them. Please donate today.
DONATE NOW TO OUR GAZA EMERGENCY APPEAL
Amid this very tough situation, and with help from our committed supporter community, our teams have been working tirelessly to deliver aid to children. Despite the access challenges, we have managed to keep our life-saving services running and have already reached more than 1.6 million people with urgent support.
Right now, our teams and partners in Gaza are still supporting families across 100 locations with:
- expanding distributions of cash to families – as one of the largest cash providers in Gaza
- preparations to distribute essential items, like winter clothing and hygiene kits to families as supplies arrive across the border
- screening and treatment for malnourished children and mothers, providing medical interventions, supplements and high calorie biscuits and pastes in our healthcare centres
- deliveries of clean water via trucks to 20 communities
- learning centres where children receive mental health support as well as classroom lessons in English, Arabic and maths to help them regain a sense of normalcy
- safe spaces that allow children to play, as well as access our child protection case management services.
Meanwhile, our teams in the West Bank, Egypt and across the region are positioning supplies at the border, so we’re ready to scale-up our response as soon as access allows.
The needs and interests of Palestinian children must be prioritised, and unimpeded, safe and sustained access for aid organisations must be granted. Without a significantly increased and consistent flow of aid into and across Gaza, the pause and even a lasting ceasefire can only save so many children’s lives.
“The Government of Israel must immediately end the use of starvation as a weapon of war,” says Mat Tinkler. “Allowing aid including food and nutrition supplies into Gaza at the scale required”.
Every child should have access to the essential humanitarian aid and services they need to survive and thrive. The denial of humanitarian aid is a crime and a grave violation against children.
The famine in Gaza is the first ever declared in the Middle East, with more than 132,000 children aged under five at risk of death from acute malnutrition.
Malnutrition in children can be stopped, and children can recover from it, if treated in time. Save the Children knows how to treat it, and we are working to relieve the famine crisis facing Gaza. But we need a surge of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza and the safety and access to treat the most vulnerable children.
That’s why we are urgently asking for your support. You can help provide the critical response needed by children and families to survive this crisis and to help them recover. Together we can help save lives.
PLEASE DONATE NOW
Children in Gaza have been paying the heaviest price for an unrelenting war they’ve played no part in. Save the Children is calling on the international community to take every possible step to stop the Government of Israel from intentionally starving children and families in Gaza. We continue to push for increased humanitarian access, so children can get the help they so desperately need.
Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images.