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Gaza: 340 children killed despite so-called ceasefire - UNICEF
A little over one year since a ceasefire agreement was announced between Hamas fighters and Israel, more than 340 children have been reported killed and hundreds more injured, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Friday.
For families “mourning the loss of their children, those terrible statistics do not equate with a ceasefire”, stressed spokesperson Ricardo Pires.
He added that in the last two weeks in Gaza alone, five boys and two girls have been reported killed and at least 33 children seriously injured in airstrikes, drone strikes and gunfire across the Strip. Another two boys died of injuries sustained previously, Mr. Pires told journalists in Geneva.
The consequences of the Hamas-Israel war are everywhere for children: “where they sleep, what they eat, whether they can learn”, he continued, citing the case of
16-year-old Norhan whose mother was shot while eight months pregnant. “She delivered her baby and then died the following day,” Mr. Pires explained. “Norhan’s father is living with a disability, so she now cares for her one-year-old sister Narjis and takes full responsibility. Her days are spent tidying the home, cooking, and playing with Narjis. Her three other siblings attend a UNICEF-supported learning centre and Norhan helps them with their studies after class, which as she says means, ‘They might just have a future.’”
Asked about reports that private traders in Gaza had halted cooperation with the Israeli authorities on allowing commercial trucks carrying food to enter the occupied enclave, the UNICEF spokesperson stressed that the uninterrupted flow of “humanitarian and commercial goods” remained essential, “so children can continue their recovery”.
He recalled being in Gaza City last year before the ceasefire began, when supplies “were not getting in” and famine was declared by UN-backed food insecurity experts. “We can’t go back to a situation where children and families are not getting all the supplies, goods and services that they require,” he insisted, “where children are not receiving what they need to survive and to continue to have hope for their future”.
The UNICEF alert comes as temperatures drop and displaced families in Gaza fill empty aid flour bags with sand to keep rainwater out of their tents. Aid agencies continue to repeat warnings that the situation in Gaza remains dire, after three years of war, sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel.
The ongoing sanitation crisis is a particular concern in the war-torn enclave, where Israeli bombardment has severely damaged the drainage network.
“There are vast pools of wastewater, such as the Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin that is half-full,” Mr. Pires warned. “With the winter rains fast approaching, we’re running out of time to pump this out. Just as we warned a year ago, contaminated water could overflow and inundate downstream residential areas with potentially life-threatening impacts for children and their families. Children have drowned in sewage-contaminated water before.”
According to UNICEF, 800,000 children remain displaced in Gaza “and most live in tents or dangerous bombed-out buildings”. An estimated 60,000 children have seen either one or both, parents, killed during the war, or since the ceasefire and nearly every child needs some form of mental health support to recover.
As part of UN assistance to Palestinians in Gaza, UNICEF has helped more than 560,000 children return to learning since the ceasefire, including at over 200 UNICEF-supported learning centres.
The agency has also provided digital cash assistance – “a lifeline”, Mr. Pires stressed – to more than 380,000 people, along with safe water to 1.2 million people.
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Story: Gaza ceasefire killings – UNICEF
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
Duration: 3’52”
DATELINE: 16 October 2026 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speakers:
- Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF & Gaza in 2026, please credit UNICEF
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot, UN flag alley, UN Geneva.
- Wide, Press Room, podium speakers, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “In the last two weeks in Gaza, despite an agreed ceasefire, five boys and two girls have been reported killed and at least 33 children seriously injured in airstrikes, drone strikes and gunfire across the Strip. Another two boys died of injuries sustained previously.”
- Wide, Press Room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “A little over one year on since the ceasefire was announced, more than 340 children have been reported killed and hundreds of others injured. Not least for the families mourning the loss of their children, those terrible statistics do not equate with a ceasefire as most would imagine one.”
- Wide, Press Room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “There are vast pools of water, of wastewater, such as the Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin that is half-full. And with the winter rains fast approaching, we're running out of time to pump this out. Just as we warned a year ago, contaminated water could overflow and inundate downstream residential areas with potentially life-threatening impacts for children and their families. Children have drowned in sewage-contaminated water before.”
- Medium, Press Room participants.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “We've seen reports of commercial trucks not being allowed; I cannot confirm, not comment further on that, what I can say is that humanitarian and commercial goods are essential to children in Gaza as they have been before, during and after the ceasefire and they continue to be so. We call for humanitarian and commercial supplies to be allowed into Gaza and continuously so, children can continue their recovery.”
- Wide, podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “I was in Gaza City a year ago when humanitarian supplies were not getting in, we didn’t have a ceasefire and our operations were compromised by that; so, we can't go back to a situation where children and families are not getting all the supplies, goods and services that they require. We need to pick up from a very low baseline that we had over a year ago, not go back to a situation where children are not receiving what they need to survive and to continue to have hope for their future.”
- Medium, Press Room participants.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Ricardo Pires, spokesperson, UNICEF: “Since the ceasefire, more than 560,000 children have returned to learning, including over 200 UNICEF-supported learning centres. This year, we’ve provided digital cash assistance – a lifeline – to more than 380,000 people and we continue to supply safe water to 1.2 million people.”
- Close, pipe draining a trickle of water into a recipient (UNICEF credit).
- Medium, young woman pours water from large container into a kettle (UNICEF credit).
- Medium, hot water being poured into a baby’s bottle (UNICEF credit).
- Medium, baby drinking formula from bottle (UNICEF credit).
- Wide, devastation in Gaza (UNICEF credit).
- Medium, a smiling young girl (UNICEF credit).
- Close, waste plastic bottles and other refuse on the ground (UNICEF credit).
- Wide, a young man sifts through waste (UNICEF credit).
- Wide, trucking, makeshift shelters amid devastation (UNICEF credit).
- Wide, trucking, makeshift shelters amid devastation (UNICEF credit).
- Wide, children sitting in a tent, a young girl is studying with an older girl (UNICEF credit).
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The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
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Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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