Statement by UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Adele Khodr on the impact of displacement orders in North Gaza

AMMAN, 10 October 2024 – Sudden displacement orders in the North Gaza and Gaza Governorates are deeply concerning and once again forcing tens of thousands of vulnerable civilians onto the roads. Families, including children, have been ordered to move south to an area that is already heavily overcrowded, polluted, unsafe and lacking basic necessities for survival.

The evacuations, including for premature babies fighting for survival in incubators and children in intensive care units, alongside continued restrictions on aid access to the north and relentless bombardments, have devastating and unconscionable consequences that we have witnessed unfold repeatedly. Children are being condemned, time and again, to unimaginable suffering, horrors, and death.

Three major hospitals, including Kamal Adwan, the only hospital with a pediatric unit in the north, are affected by these orders. The survival of critically ill patients, including 18 children according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, is jeopardized.

As military operations in the north of Gaza intensify, children are exposed to grave risks of being killed, maimed, detained, or separated from their parents and caregivers amid the constant danger and chaos.  The situation is especially dire for children with disabilities, medical conditions, or other vulnerabilities, placing them at even greater risk and making relocation not only more difficult but life threatening—particularly with few, if any, safe places left to go.

Children’s lives are further endangered by the fact that basic supplies have not been allowed to north Gaza for weeks now, including fuel and commercial goods to stock shops and markets. 
    
This marks the fourth time within a year that families in Jabalia have been ordered to leave their homes. Many have returned after each displacement, unable to find safety elsewhere. Being forced to flee multiple times amid recurring military operations, with no end in sight, deprives children of the little safety and stability they have left. These children face risks of profound life-long impacts on their physical and psychological wellbeing.

UNICEF and other humanitarian agencies are doing everything we can to stem the suffering, but we are struggling against an unending challenge, spiral of death, displacement and despair.

Now more than ever, I implore parties to the conflict to agree on an immediate ceasefire to prevent more suffering and save the lives of children. Without it, it is not only their survival at stake, but also the remnants of our own humanity.