by Peace House staff
By now you’ve heard about the widespread crisis for children in Gaza, where starvation is becoming commonplace and families struggle to survive. CNN recently published a profile of one family, who suffered tragic losses after the Israel rescue operation last month, and then published another article outlining the results from a Save the Children report issued this week.
“Horrific images continue to emerge from Gaza of children dying before their families’ eyes due to the continued lack of food, nutrition supplies, and the destruction of healthcare services,” said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Adele Khodr. “Unless treatment can be quickly resumed for these 3,000 children, they are at immediate and serious risk of becoming critically ill, acquiring life-threatening complications, and joining the growing list of boys and girls who have been killed by this senseless, man-made deprivation.”
UNICEF is operating 80 centers in Gaza, where they are conducting malnutrition checks. Many thousands of children and adults have been determined to have acute malnutrition, and many cannot be reached to receive lifesaving, therapeutic feeding. The problem, especially for children, is so much larger than the agency can tackle, it’s staggering.
“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children,” said UNICEF spokesman James Elder in a recent report back, “It’s a living hell for everyone else.”
We invite people of conscience to consider donating to help get desperately needed food, clean water, and medical supplies to those who need it most. While the official numbers of children killed in Israel’s war in Gaza soar above 15,500, the numbers of missing children – approximately 21,000 according to one source – are thought to be buried below rubble or held in Israel detention centers. Now, with famine-like conditions across all of Gaza, the youngest, most vulnerable are among those most at risk.
There are many ways to support children who have become innocent victims of the brutal war, and the following only represents a few groups who seem to reaching many people in need.
- Save the Children, who operate in war zones have a massive operation with their partners and have reached more than 769,000 people in the past nine months.
- World Central Kitchen, who themselves lost key staff at the hands of Israel, continues to operate in Gaza. Their operation is Palestinian-led and they reach millions of people.
- UNICEF also has effective operations benefiting families in Gaza and the West Bank
