More than 340 children have been reported killed and hundreds more injured in Gaza in the roughly one year since a ceasefire agreement between Hamas fighters and Israel was announced, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday. For families "mourning the loss of their children, those terrible statistics do not equate with a ceasefire," UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires stressed, speaking to journalists in Geneva.
In the two weeks prior to the briefing alone, five boys and two girls were reported killed and at least 33 children seriously injured in airstrikes, drone strikes and gunfire across the Strip. Two further boys died of injuries sustained previously, Pires said. The consequences of the war are felt across every dimension of children's daily lives — "where they sleep, what they eat, whether they can learn," he added.
UNICEF raised particular concern about the approaching winter. Displaced families are already filling empty flour bags with sand to keep rainwater out of their tents, while the drainage network across Gaza has been severely damaged by Israeli bombardment. Pires pointed specifically to the Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin, which is described as half-full, warning that winter rains could cause contaminated water to overflow into residential areas with "potentially life-threatening impacts for children and their families."
According to UNICEF, 800,000 children remain displaced, most living in tents or damaged buildings. An estimated 60,000 children have lost one or both parents during the war or since the ceasefire, and nearly every child is said to need some form of mental health support. Pires also flagged reports that private traders had halted cooperation with Israeli authorities over the entry of commercial trucks carrying food, stressing that uninterrupted flow of humanitarian and commercial goods remained essential "so children can continue their recovery." He recalled that before the ceasefire, famine had been declared by UN-backed food insecurity experts and warned: "We can't go back to a situation where children and families are not getting all the supplies, goods and services that they require."
On the aid side, UNICEF said it had helped more than 560,000 children return to learning since the October 2025 ceasefire, including at over 200 UNICEF-supported learning centres. The agency has provided digital cash assistance to more than 380,000 people and safe water to 1.2 million people.
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