“Over 18,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war. That’s an average of 28 children a day, the size of a classroom, gone. Children have lost loved ones, they are hungry and scared, and they are traumatised…”

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban gave this chilling reminder following his recent travel to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, as he insisted, “What children need – children from all communities –  is a sustained ceasefire and a political way forward.”

Mr. Chaiban, who serves as UNICEF’s Executive Director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations, discussed the humanitarian crisis hitting new extremes following his most recent travel there, warning that Gaza is on the verge of famine and needs are enormous.

UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, works to protect children’s rights everywhere, and does so across more than 190 countries and territories.

Grave risk of famine

“Gaza now faces a grave risk of famine,” the UN agency official stated, acknowledging that even if this has been building up, two indicators have now exceeded the famine threshold.  “One in three people in Gaza are going days without food, and the malnutrition indicator has exceeded the famine threshold, with global acute malnutrition now at over 16.5 per cent [in Gaza City].”

“Today,” he decried, “more than 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition.”

While UNICEF is doing everything possible to address the situation, including supporting breastfeeding, providing infant formula, and treating children with severe acute malnutrition, he cautioned, “the needs are enormous after 22 months of war and two months of a blockade.” Even if that blockade has now been eased, he said, it is still having an impact, for “the aid is not getting in fast enough or at the required scale as of yet.”

Failure to protect civilians and children

In the midst of all this, he said that despite many having suffered devastating personal losses, their staff in Gaza continue to work day and night.

UNICEF is delivering safe water, some 2.4 million liters per day in northern Gaza, which reaches some 600,000 children; but, he laments, this is still far below survival thresholds.

Mr. Chaiban added that they have pressed for a review of their military rules of engagement to protect civilians and children.

“Children,” he underscored, “should not be getting killed waiting in line at a nutrition centre or collecting water, and people should not be so desperate as to have to rush a convoy.”

In addition, he shared, “We called for more humanitarian aid and commercial traffic to come in – moving closer towards 500 trucks a day – to stabilize the situation and reduce the desperation of the population.”

Read more: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2025-08/gaza-is-on-verge-of-famine-needs-are-enormous.html

By Deborah Castellano Lubov | vaticannews