State of Palestine Appeal

The conflict that escalated on 7 October 2023 has caused devastating humanitarian consequences for children across the State of Palestine and Israel. In the Gaza Strip, at least 21,700 children have been reported killed as of 30 June 2026; 45,000 children have been injured, including more than 11,000 children with life-altering injuries. Protection risks, grave violations and mental health and psychosocial needs of children are at extreme levels and ever-increasing. At least 1.3 million people – most of the Gaza Strip’s population – are displaced; many of whom have been displaced multiple times.

Following the October 2025 ceasefire, aid delivery increased, contributing to improvements in food security and nutrition conditions across the Gaza Strip. However, gains remain fragile and uneven, with ongoing access constraints, operational disruptions and continued humanitarian needs limiting sustained progress. Violence, though reduced, persists, with at least 277 children reported killed in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire, highlighting ongoing protection risks; and restrictions on critical items for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions – such as pipes and spare parts – are delaying early recovery efforts. These constraints are increasing pressure on UNICEF to scale up direct service delivery across sectors, while complicating field presence, supply movement, monitoring and timely delivery of assistance in both Gaza and the West Bank. 

The extensive damage to water, sanitation and waste management infrastructure, the lack of critical resources to operate and maintain the remaining infrastructure and the resulting poor hygiene conditions are leaving almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip prone to public health risks. The destruction of health facilities, coupled with overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, has led to outbreaks of diarrhoea, hepatitis A, acute respiratory infections and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (CvDPV2), detected in the Gaza Strip in 2024, 25 years after it was eliminated. According to the latest Health Resources and Services Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS) assessment, 54 per cent (19/35) of hospitals are partially functioning. Among primary healthcare centres, 5 per cent (10/222) are fully functional and 54 per cent (119/222) are partially functional. Limited access to fuel, spare parts and consumables continues to constrain the operation of critical systems. These risks are expected to intensify during the winter months, particularly for displaced families living in inadequate shelters and flood-prone areas. 

Nutritional vulnerability remains widespread in the Gaza Strip, despite the low prevalence of acute malnutrition recorded in the 2026 Gaza SMART Survey. Conducted across accessible areas covering approximately 83 per cent of the population, the survey found combined Global Acute Malnutrition among children aged 0–59 months at 1.3 per cent, while stunting affected 12.2 per cent of children. Maternal malnutrition affected 9.4 per cent of non-pregnant and non-lactating women and 7.2 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women. Poor infant and young child feeding practices, low diet diversity, high childhood morbidity and suboptimal coverage of preventive interventions show that sustained food assistance, nutrition services, maternal nutrition support, WASH interventions and routine nutrition surveillance remain essential.

Systematic attacks on schools – many serving as shelters for internally displaced people – have severely hampered the resumption of learning, leaving over 658,000 children out of school and potentially setting back their education by five years; 97.5 per cent of schools are damaged or destroyed. UNICEF launched a Gaza-wide "Back-to-Learning" campaign and for the first time in two years was able to deliver Recreational Kits and Educational Kits to the Gaza Strip in January 2026. These supplies, together with Early Childhood Development and Education kits, will support children’s learning, well-being, and resilience building. 

The destruction of roads and infrastructure and volatile security situation, coupled with highly constrained humanitarian access, are disrupting supply chains and delaying the distribution of essential items. Entry of critical supplies is hampered by the mandatory use of congested entry points, with frequent denial of alternative routes for humanitarian trucks. Meanwhile, persistent delays in customs clearance are exacerbating delivery timelines. Taken together, these constraints are increasing pressure on UNICEF to scale up direct service delivery across sectors. 

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, escalating violence, settler attacks, militarized law enforcement operations and movement restrictions have further strained and, in some areas, disrupted access to essential services. Around 800,000 people require water and sanitation services and 830,000 require healthcare, including pregnant women, and newborns and children requiring essential primary and referral care. Protection concerns, attacks on education, and teacher salary cuts have deepened the education crisis, affecting at least 84,000 students. Violence, grave violations against children, displacement and economic hardships have intensified children's protection needs, particularly for mental health and psychosocial support. 

In Israel, approximately 1,200 people were killed on 7 October 2023 and in its immediate aftermath, including 37 children. The psychological impact of the conflict on Israeli children cannot be overlooked.

UNICEF prioritizes urgent needs in WASH, health, nutrition, education, child protection and social protection while strengthening systems and preparedness. Life-saving services and behaviour change interventions target vulnerable groups with attention to disability, age and gender.

Across the Gaza Strip, UNICEF repairs, operates and maintains WASH facilities – fuel and generators for WASH systems, pumping systems for water and wastewater, water treatment systems (desalination plants, chlorinators), water storage and distribution systems (through water trucking or pipes, safe household latrines for the most vulnerable families in IDP camps, etc.) UNICEF also supports activities including solid waste management, infection prevention, hygiene promotion, pre-positioning of WASH supplies and installing or improving WASH facilities in health and educational settings, and in scaling up winterization interventions. In the West Bank, UNICEF is responding to damaged WASH infrastructure due to settler violence and militarized law enforcement operations through both emergency and stabilization interventions, including rapid-response WASH assistance with essential emergency supplies, emergency latrines, water tanks and water trucking, as well as rehabilitation and resilience-focused repairs of water and sanitation infrastructure to restore services and reduce vulnerability to future disruptions. 

UNICEF strengthens primary healthcare by supporting the operationalization of integrated primary healthcare services, including mobile teams in areas with constrained access, support to community health workers and capacity building for frontline providers. UNICEF also supports immunization, selective specialized referral care for newborns and children, maternal and neonatal health; and rehabilitation services for children with impairments, including amputees. Through a humanitarian-nexus approach, these interventions meet urgent needs while investing in longer-term health system strengthening. 

In the Gaza Strip, UNICEF prioritizes prevention, early detection and treatment of wasting through provision of complementary food, energy and micronutrient supplements, infant and young child feeding counselling and social and behaviour change. In the West Bank, support includes strengthening community health and nutrition capacities and pre-positioning supplies. 

Education efforts in the Gaza Strip prioritize the resumption of learning by establishing learning centres with minimum learning entitlements. Teachers and students benefit from essential materials, and are supported through social and emotional learning activities, while UNICEF adapts alternative mechanisms so that students have access to educational materials to learn effectively. Through the Back to Learning programme, UNICEF with partners is scaling up its response to restore access to non-formal education for hundreds of thousands of children deprived of schooling for nearly three consecutive years.

In the West Bank, UNICEF supports catch-up education programmes, digital learning and disaster risk reduction initiatives to mitigate learning loss. Adolescent girls receive a combination of protection, education and hygiene support. 

Child protection interventions are tailored to the unique impact of conflict and grave violations, focusing on supporting affected families and at-risk children, including children without parental care, while improving case management and access to legal assistance. UNICEF continues to adapt emergency child protection, community-based protection and mental health and psychosocial support services, including in learning centres in the Gaza Strip, using creative mobile and remote modalities to reach scale. 

Multi-purpose cash assistance helps vulnerable households meet basic needs. There are top-ups for families with pregnant and breastfeeding women, female-headed households and children with specific requirements. Additional front-line workers will receive incentive payments, ensuring continuity of access to essential services. 

UNICEF remains active within the United Nations Country Team and the Humanitarian Country Team and will work to strengthen cluster coordination as leader of the WASH and Nutrition clusters, as co-leader of the Education Cluster, and through the technical leadership and coordination of child protection concerns within the Protection Cluster.