A Palestinian child reacts as she and others mourn over the body of a boy killed in an overnight Israeli military strike, during his funeral at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip. AFP
Speaking from Amman to a press briefing in Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said the deaths meant that, on average, one child had been killed every day for more than eight months despite the existence of a declared ceasefire.
The UNICEF spokesperson's sombre words come as the Israeli occupation army forges ahead with its genocidal war on Gaza, now in its 31st month, with the death toll among the Palestinians over 73,000 and the wounded nearly 200,000, most of them women and children, despite regional and international calls on Tel Aviv to respect the October 2025 ceasefire deal with Hamas.
It also comes a month after the United Nations demanded that Israel take measures to prevent acts of "genocide" in Gaza, and decried indications of "ethnic cleansing" in the Palestinian territory and in the occupied West Bank, to no avail.
"For many, many months, the world has been told there is a ceasefire in Gaza. Yet for Palestinian children, this so-called ceasefire has become a cruel and deadly illusion," Elder said.
"Since the ceasefire was announced in October 2025, 265 Palestinian children have been killed across Gaza."
Elder said the children had been killed in homes, schools and public spaces rather than on active battlefields.
"These children were not killed in a warzone. They were killed in their homes. In their schools. Playing football. Fishing," he said.
The UNICEF official cited several recent cases, including a two-year-old boy allegedly shot and killed by Israeli forces, a 13-year-old boy killed inside a tent, and a five-year-old child killed alongside his father in an Israeli strike.
According to UNICEF, more than 400 children have also been injured by Israeli strikes since the ceasefire was declared, many suffering severe and life-altering wounds.
Elder said recent cases included a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the chest while inside a tent and a three-year-old girl who was shot in the face while inside her home.
He warned that Gaza's children were enduring profound psychological trauma after months of exposure to violence, displacement and loss.
"For Gaza's children, fear, loss and violence have become so constant that trauma is no longer an episode in their lives. It is woven into the very fabric of their childhood," he said.
The agency also expressed concern about restrictions on medical supplies and the slow pace of medical evacuations, saying hundreds of wounded children urgently required treatment outside Gaza.
Elder called on governments and international institutions to act, arguing that continued child deaths during a declared ceasefire undermined confidence in international humanitarian protections.
"We must stop accepting levels of child deaths that would provoke international outrage anywhere else in the world," he said.
The UNICEF spokesperson also highlighted the situation in Lebanon, where the agency said 247 children had been killed and nearly 1,000 injured since an escalation in Israeli strikes in the country began on 2 March.
As Elder spoke to reporters, the Israeli occupation army killed 18 and wounded 33 Lebanese in overnight strikes on the south and the east of Lebanon, in breach of the Washington-Tehran MoU to end all hostilities in the region.
According to UNICEF, the figures equate to an average of 12 children being killed or maimed every day during a period that included declared ceasefires.
"In Lebanon, we are also talking about periods of a declared ceasefire, where children are continuing to be killed," Elder said. "No ceasefire can be considered meaningful while children continue to be killed."
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