At a glance: Occupied Palestinian Territory
Newsline
Psychosocial activities help disadvantaged Palestinian children relieve stress
QALQILYA, West Bank, 28 April 2008 – Laughter fills the playground as more than 100 children with disabilities anxiously await their first visit to the only zoo in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Crushed childhoods, cruel choices in Gaza
AMMAN, Jordan, 8 April 2008 – Ayman is a soft-spoken 14-year-old boy from Jabalia City, Gaza. His family is poor, as his father has been unemployed since March 2006. Ayman’s parents have already sold almost all their furniture to pay for food and schooling for their children. Recently, after collecting a governmental food handout, Ayman’s father had to sell the milk to get the money for the journey back home.
Counselling sessions help children cope with their fears after recent violence in Gaza
GAZA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 24 March 2008 – A renewed round of fighting that began at the end of February brought chaos and destruction to Jabalia, located at the north end of the Gaza Strip. The violence exacerbated an already deteriorating humanitarian situation stemming from the near total blockade of Gaza since June 2007.
Students return to Gaza schools still suffering from lack of heat and electricity
GAZA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 13 February 2008 – Nearly 400 government schools in Gaza have reopened their doors to a quarter of a million students returning from winter break – but teachers and children have been met with classrooms that have neither heat nor light due to reduced power supplies.
Education suffers amidst political tension and conflict in Gaza
GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 12 December 2007 – Najwa Al Smairi, 11, goes to school just metres from Gaza’s heavily guarded perimeter. She is one of the brightest students in her class but fears failure due to the violence and uncertainty around her.
Palestinian children face the challenges of getting an education during conflict
HEBRON, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 5 October 2007 – Ongoing conflict poses threats to the education of Palestinian children. Not only is their safe access to school often jeopardized, but it is hard for them to thrive once they get into the classroom.
Palestinian adolescents find an outlet through UNICEF-supported community centres
JABALIA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 14 August 2007 – Palestinian adolescents often find themselves with no place to go and nothing to do during the summer school holidays and in their spare time.
Palestinian child health still suffers despite end of eight-month strike at clinics
NABLUS, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 19 June 2007 – Palestinian children’s access to health services is regularly jeopardized. The current intra-Palestinian conflict and Israeli military incursions place their physical and mental well-being at risk, even as they suffer from the effects of an eight-month health workers’ strike.
Recent violence in Gaza leaves many young people shaken
NEW YORK, USA, 19 June 2007 – The recent intra-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip left many young people traumatized and unable to carry out their daily activities. Last week’s clashes between Hamas and Fatah killed more than 110 people and injured another 500.
Learning centres help restore hope for Palestinian adolescents
RAFAH, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 6 June 2007– On a daily basis, the rights of children and adolescents in the West Bank and Gaza – including their rights to education and to play – are compromised by the effects of closures, disruption of schooling and deteriorating living standards in the context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Youth in Gaza and Sderot, Israel face daily violence
NEW YORK, 22 May 2007 – Julie is 17 years old and lives in Gaza in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt). Violence has been an ongoing part of her world for her whole life, off and on, but in the last week there’s been an increase in the level of unrest in her community, both between the internal Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah, and in the form of air strikes from the Israeli Air Force.
Young Palestinians mark Palestinian Child’s Day by speaking out against violence
BETHLEHEM, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 4 April 2007 – Hundreds of children will mark Palestinian Child’s Day on Thursday by gathering in Gaza and Ramallah and speaking out against violence. The young activists have also arranged to speak to a panel of high-level officials to request they take the lead in protecting children from the ongoing violence.
Palestinians cope with water scarcity in Gaza
NEW YORK, USA, 22 March 2007 – The drawings by hundreds of Palestinian schoolchildren were on display at a ceremony in Gaza today to mark World Water Day 2007. The 25 best drawings inspired by the theme ‘Coping with Water Scarcity’ were selected as winners during the event.
Palestinian teens speak out on new agreement to end internal violence
NEW YORK, USA 9 February 2007 – After several weeks of internal fighting in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, leaders of the Hamas and Fatah parties yesterday signed an agreement to cease the violence. The agreement, known as the Mecca Accord, followed a two-day summit in Saudi Arabia.
Palestinian child health still faces challenges, despite end of strike at clinics
HEBRON, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 6 February 2007 – Government clinics have resumed routine services following a recent three-month health workers’ strike that began after clinic staff members had not been paid their full salaries for over 10 months.
Palestinian students return to school despite intense challenges and violence
NEW YORK, USA, 16 January 2007 – Students in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are finally beginning a new semester after violence and teachers’ strikes kept many away from their studies last year.
Vigil held in memory of boys killed in Gaza
NEW YORK, USA, 12 December 2006 – The killing of three young brothers in Gaza City yesterday has shocked the Palestinian community across the political divide and exposed, once again, the plight of children living in the volatile region.
Renewed violence in Gaza raises serious concerns for children’s safety
NEW YORK, USA, 8 November 2006 – Renewed violence in Gaza is again raising serious concerns about the welfare of civilians, including children. Over the past week, the armed conflict has claimed the lives of an estimated 68 Palestinians – including 18 reportedly killed in shelling as Israeli tanks withdrew from the town of Beit Hanoun before dawn today.
Community non-violence workshops protect Palestinian children
NEW YORK, USA, 10 October 2006 – In the streets of Nablus in the West Bank, a group of Palestinian adolescents chat animatedly, on their way to a special workshop promoting non-violence.
European Commission funds support for Palestinian children caught in conflict
NEW YORK, USA, 4 October 2006 – Ninety-one children have been killed already this year in the West Bank and Gaza, almost double the number killed during the whole of 2005. Fear and violence are part of daily life in the occupied Palestinian territory, and children are suffering from increasing levels of stress.
Child health suffers in Gaza and West Bank as government workers’ strike continues
NEW YORK, USA, 12 September 2006 – Thousands of children in the West Bank and Gaza have been without medical care since health workers went on strike earlier this month. Along with other government workers, they have not been paid for several months because of the continuing conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Six months without pay sparks teachers’ strike in Gaza and West Bank
NEW YORK, USA, 5 September 2006 – Just days into the start of the new school term most schools in Gaza are closed due to a strike by government workers, including teachers, who haven’t been paid for six months. The strike, which is open-ended, is affecting 750,000 pupils.
Schools shelter Palestinian families displaced by violence in Gaza
NEW YORK, USA, 22 August 2006 – The Preparatory School for Boys in Rafah, southern Gaza, has become a temporary home for nearly 50 Palestinian families affected by ongoing hostilities.
Children suffer with no end to violence in Gaza
NEW YORK, USA, 16 August 2006 – As the fragile ceasefire continues to hold in Lebanon, children in Gaza are facing unprecedented levels of violence.
Safe play areas offer some relief for children caught in Gaza conflict zone
NEW YORK, USA, 11 August 2006 – In the Palestinian village of Wadi Al Salqa, children at a playground are busy playing with their friends, just as children do everywhere. But what may look like a perfectly ordinary scene is not so ordinary in Gaza, where children have very few places to play.
Crisis worsens Gaza’s already severe water shortage
NEW YORK, USA, 8 August 2006 – The water point in the southern Gaza town of Joret al Lout is the only place to get drinkable water for the more than 10,000 people who live there.
Psychosocial programmes help Palestinian children cope with crisis
NEW YORK, USA, 2 August 2006 – Since there are no places to play in Al Zaytoun, children wander the streets, improvising their own games in the heavily populated area east of Gaza City. Poverty is rife and ongoing hostilities have made matters worse.
Escalating death toll for children in Gaza
NEW YORK, USA, 27 July 2006 – While clashes between Israel and Hezbollah intensify in Lebanon, fighting continues on a second front in Gaza in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). And the crisis is taking a heavy toll on children.
Palestinian children hit hardest in ongoing Gaza crisis
NEW YORK, USA, 26 July 2006 – While clashes between Israel and Hezbollah intensify in Lebanon, fighting continues on a second front in Gaza in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
Sport gives girls in Gaza a new outlook
GAZA, West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 27 February 2006 – It is early morning and 16-year-old Sahar Matter is helping her mother clear the dishes before heading off to school.
Remedial education helps millions of Palestinian children
AZZUN ATMA, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 16 February 2006 – Education is a daily struggle in the remote northern West Bank village of Azzun Atma where there is only one school. UNICEF is supporting a project that trains teachers and parents throughout the West Bank and Gaza to help students study on their own or at home with remedial worksheets.
Safe-play havens for Palestinian children living in conflict zones
NABLUS, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 3 January 2006 – Nestled in the golden hills surrounding Nablus in the West Bank, the little town of Till is home to 3,000 people. Like many population centres in this conflict-prone area, children’s access to safe play and recreational facilities has been virtually non-existent…until recently.
Children welcome EC Commissioner to ECHO/UNICEF psychosocial programme near Ramallah
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 29 November 2005 - Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, visited an ECHO-funded UNICEF project in the West Bank on Tuesday, to see how children are being helped to overcome psychosocial distress.
Psychosocial care designed to help children affected by ongoing conflict
JERUSALEM, West Bank, 29 November 2005 - In Hebron’s Al Mutalabi school, boys aged between 5 and 14 are busy making paper masks and traditional ‘Tarbouch’ hats in the courtyard.
Children’s Municipality Council helps improve children’s lives in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
GAZA CITY, 23 August 2005 - While Israel evacuates settlers in the Gaza Strip, many Palestinian teenagers are learning to become the next generation of leaders in Gaza City.
UNICEF boosts aid deliveries before Israeli withdrawal
GAZA, 27 July 2005 – With less than a month remaining before Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip, UNICEF has completed final deliveries of aid supplies to some of the most isolated enclaves in the area.
Occupied Palestinian territory: Massive campaign to protect children from mumps
WEST BANK, oPt, 10 May 2005 - Saddam, an 11-year old boy, awoke on Tuesday morning as usual, ready for school. However, it was not a normal day for Saddam. He felt pain and swelling in his neck, and was feverish. Saddam instantly informed his mother, Safiyyeh, who advised him to go to school and seek the advice of the school principal.
Children’s Municipal Councils give children a sense of empowerment
NABLUS, West Bank, oPt, 16 December 2004 - Hundreds of children in the West Bank city of Nablus have completed voting in elections for a new Children’s Municipality Council (CMC).
Gaza children go back to school with UNICEF bags
NEW YORK, 28 October 2004 – UNICEF has distributed more than 40,000 school bags to children in the Northern Gaza Strip.
Gaza offensive levels kindergarten
GAZA CITY, 6 October 2004 – At 3 a.m. on a fog-shrouded morning, Israeli military vehicles opened fire on an area in the Gaza Strip near the Rawdet Tal Zaatar kindergarten.
National immunization campaign begins in the West Bank and Gaza
BETHLEHEM, 28 June 2004 –Fatima Ibrahim walks gingerly towards a Ministry of Health clinic clutching the hand of her daughter, 2-year-old Ikran Hamed. Moments later, the child had received a drop of Vitamin A and an injection of measles vaccine – the first among more than half-a-million Palestinian children to receive the treatment.
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy to visit Gaza City and Israel
GAZA CITY, 28 May 2004 - In her first visit to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and Israel, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy will spend most of her time interacting with children who have been impacted by the long-running conflict.
