Gaza: 300 children killed in 300 days of Israeli-Hamas ‘ceasefire’

To suspend military operations between Hamas fighters and the Israel Defense Forces, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

Why it matters

• Children are still being killed despite ceasefire 
• More babies born premature to hungry mothers 
• Aid agencies say much greater aid access needed 
• A generation of children lack education and other basic services

Amid reports of a new United States-led peace plan for the war-torn enclave and a recent spike in Israeli airstrikes on alleged Hamas targets in Gaza, UNICEF stressed that families are now confined to approximately one third of the Strip, sheltering among destroyed buildings, rubble and uncleared waste. 

“A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children,” said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder. 

“With hundreds more children injured, many severely, children in Gaza are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised.”

Responding to the reports about the mooted Gaza peace plan, the senior UN official welcomed recent announcements suggesting “steps towards ending hostilities” and scaled-up deliveries of humanitarian relief.

“For children in Gaza, the test is simple. Does the killing stop? Does aid reach them at scale? Do hospitals reopen and water flow? Will children return to school safely in September?” Mr. Beigbeder said. “Children have heard promises before. This time, agreements must translate into action.”

Suffering on a huge scale

Deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel in October 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza have caused an ongoing humanitarian crisis on an epic scale.

In common with many other UN agencies and partners, UNICEF warned once again that across the Strip, children continue to face acute malnutrition, disease, unsafe water and damaged sanitation systems.

For the duration of the hostilities, the UN has not stopped working to help the people of Gaza.

And yet despite repeated calls to flood the enclave with aid – and for the killing to stop – UNICEF health workers describe how exhausted and hungry mothers continue to arrive at health centres carrying their severely malnourished children. 

Another consequence of this chronic lack of assistance is a worrying increase in premature births, along with more newborns in a critical condition. 

“There’s not enough incubators and in some cases [health workers are] saying they see two or even three babies sharing a single machine,” explained UNICEF spokesperson Louise Wateridge. 

“In Gaza, children only days old are already fighting to stay alive, born into partially functioning hospitals lacking equipment and medicine.”

Ms. Wateridge added: “This is what the world has chosen to tolerate. The killing must stop, aid has to enter at scale and children must be protected.”

Burying children

“The world calls it a ceasefire but families in Gaza are still burying their children,” the UNICEF spokesperson continued.

In its latest update on Gaza, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, noted that airstrikes in Gaza had reportedly resulted in civilian casualties and damage to critical medical supplies and civilian infrastructure. 

“Ongoing military operations near the so-called ‘Yellow Line’ – coupled with strikes reported in other parts of the Strip – are disrupting civilian life, damaging shelters, driving renewed displacement, and restricting access to life-saving services,” the agency said, in reference to the line of separation consisting of concrete blocks erected by Israeli soldiers.

Citing the Gazan health authorities, OCHA said that the overall casualty toll since the announcement of a ceasefire agreement on 10 October 2025 is 1,209 people killed and 3,943 injured. 

After attacks on a medical storage facility next to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah last weekend, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that essential medical supplies had been destroyed, including some delivered by the agency.

Assistance continues

Amid the violence, the UN and its partners continue to respond “wherever and whenever they can”, OCHA said. This included work to improve 3,000 makeshift shelters in Gaza City last week and the distribution of emergency shelter and essential items to 9,000 households, including kitchen sets, tarpaulins, blankets, mattresses, solar lights and clothes.

“To scale up assistance and carry out further upgrades of makeshift shelters, it is critical that timber, ropes, more solar lights and tools are allowed to enter Gaza in a timely manner,” OCHA insisted. 

On Tuesday, UNICEF delivered more than 600 pallets of recreational kits, school bags and soap into Gaza. The supplies will be distributed ahead of the new school year, expected to begin in about two weeks.

Other partners working on education continue to provide support, too. More than 250,000 pre-school and school-aged children are participating in summer learning activities, helping to provide a sense of routine and stability, while helping students recover some of the learning lost during the hostilities.