Renewed attacks leave Gaza’s children in cascading crises

Renewed airstrikes in the Gaza Strip after weeks of a ceasefire has once again plunged its 2.1 million residents into a vortex of compounding crises. With vital infrastructure destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people have little water or hygiene. As long as bombing continues and the crossings into Gaza remain closed, it is impossible to reactivate broken or dysfunctional water and sanitation networks.

A shortage of generators, fuel, and other needed supplies have rendered water, sanitation, and hygiene systems in the Gaza Strip almost non-existent.

In north and south Gaza, families have set up rudimentary camps on the sites of their destroyed homes. Rodents and insects plague these open-air encampments while open untreated sewage grows. Bodies continue to be discovered under the rubble and toilets are mostly unavailable. To get clean tanked water, many families travel long distances on foot before hauling it back to their camps.

Shortages in clean water, deterioration of hygiene, and the depletion of food supplies threaten to increase malnutrition, say UNICEF’s nutrition partners. In the first two weeks of March, partners screened more than 29,000 children under age five across Gaza and identified over 750 children with acute malnutrition.

During the ceasefire, UNICEF was able to increase the amount of food supplies, equipment, and other urgently needed humanitarian aid. But since early March, no goods or assistance have been allowed to enter Gaza, quickly plunging Palestinians into renewed crisis. UNICEF, however, continues to support the water production and several WASH services.

No Place for Children

Reda, 12, and Siraj, 5, are living with their family on the rubble of their former home in Jabalya refugee camp. They were repeatedly displaced over the last 17 months, fleeing from shelter to shelter. During this time, their father and older brother were killed in a drone attack.

When a ceasefire was declared in mid-January 2025, the family—like hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians—made their way back to their home in Jabalya. The camp was devastated, but their home had one remaining upright wall, and the boys were even able to find some of their toys in the pulverized concrete. 

Says Siraj, “My brother Reda and I returned with the rest of our family to the ruins of our home. I started searching for what remained of my toys and belongings, dividing my time between playing with Reda and helping my family fetch water.”

The environment here is no place for children. It is strewn with debris, unexploded ordnance, and mounting garbage. In the courtyards of overcrowded schools turned into shelters, sewage water sits in pools while young children play nearby. Returnees to north and south Gaza do not have any sanitation facilities at all. 

Lack of Safety and Sanitation

UNICEF and other aid organizations estimate that 67 per cent of water and sanitation networks have been destroyed or damaged. In addition, more than 1.4 million people are barely meeting the minimum humanitarian standard of six litres of potable water per day, which is mostly available via water trucking.

Combined with the lack of water and food, poor hygiene leads to sickness and the spread of disease.

The search for safety and shelter has led some families to dig with their hands or rudimentary tools to try to clear rubble from their destroyed homes. Large machinery capable of clearing the tonnes of concrete and mangled rebar is scarce. This puts individuals at risk of injury, exposes them to toxic materials and unexploded ordnance, or endangers them with new structural collapse. Medical care is far away, and supplies are dwindling.

Now that the ceasefire has collapsed, families are once again on the move. More than 400,000 people have been displaced since 18 March, their health and safety increasingly precarious.

UNICEF has played a vital role in sustaining and increasing Gaza’s water availability by repairing and maintaining wells and water systems; delivering 3.3 million litres of fuel for wells, desalination plants, and generators for mobile water desalination plants; and distributing water treatment chemicals. UNICEF also operates extensive water trucking operations throughout Gaza, utilizing water from desalinization plants. In 2024, up to 2.6 million people benefitted from safe water for drinking and domestic needs.   

For UNICEF to best provide this aid, however, a ceasefire must be in place and assistance allowed to enter the Gaza Strip.

UNICEF’s lifesaving water and sanitation support has been funded by the European Union; the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO); the governments of Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Netherlands, and Republic of Korea; Minderoo Foundation; and flexible humanitarian funding.