Gaza’s children battle against hunger and disease on World Children’s Day

On World Children’s Day, Gaza remains an open wound in the collective memory of human kind.

The lives of thousands hang in the balance, grappling between life and death. Children have bore the brunt of suffering, enduring trauma, and the deepening humanitarian crisis.

Gaza’s youth and children should in school, playing with their friends. Laughter and screams of joy have instead fallen silent, muffled beneath unspeakable suffering.

They face a grim reality; dilapidated tents and makeshift schools amid crumbling infrastructure.

Their basic rights to protection and healthcare provisions have altogether collapsed under the weight of war and siege.

Battling for survival

As slogans championing children’s rights circulate social media platforms, Gaza is facing the most complex humanitarian disasters in modern times.

Childhood is no longer measured in school years or grades, but by a child’s ability to survive another day.

The crisis has been broadcast before global audiences. We see their small bodies battling against hunger, cold and disease — dreams bigger than themselves crushed by constant fear.

Mothers wade through treacherous terrain, crossing long distances in search of antibiotics or milk for their newborns — supplies which, due to arbitrary restrictions imposed by Israel, may never enter the Strip.

In the face of paper protections, international silence looms like a heavy shadow over a future stolen in plain sight.

The children of Gaza face not only face disease. Their health system is devastated, unable to treat the simplest cases.

An uninhabitable city, and escalating health crisis

Recent UN reports point to acute malnutrition and waterborne diseases due to contaminated water, poor hygiene, and unsanitary conditions.

The lack of safe drinking water and the collapse of sewage systems, is transforming Gaza into a breeding ground for diseases long eradicated.

Field doctors report widespread rashes, intestinal diseases and flaccid paralysis threatening the lives of infants, while hospitals are severely hampered by the lack basic services, from electricity to essential equipment.

According to World Health Organisation data, rates of acute malnutrition are increasing at an alarming rate. In July 2025, approximately 12,000 children below the age of five were diagnosed with acute malnutrition — the highest monthly figure recorded since 2023.

More than 2,500 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and though they require intensive care, resources are limited.

A report by UNICEF stated that 5,119 children aged six months to five years were admitted for treatment for malnutrition in May 2025 alone. They documented 636 severe cases requiring close medical monitoring, but hospitals face a severe shortage of nutritional medicines and essential treatments.

Emergency vaccination campaigns continue, with UNICEF carrying out a shipment of emergency vaccines in early November to prevent the outbreak of polio and other preventable diseases.

Arrested development

Education is no longer an inalienable right.

Countless schools have been partially or completely destroyed, or repurposed as shelters.

With formal education disrupted, reports indicate that hundreds of thousands of children have been out of school for months, putting an entire generation at risk of loosing critical skills.

Education is no longer a pathway towards securing the future. It’s a lifeline vital for survival, extended to fewer and fewer in Gaza.

Featured image via the Canary