Injured Palestinian children receive medical attention at Al-Awda Hospital at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, as casualties are brought into the medical facility following Israeli strikes on November 22, 2025. AFP
Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva on Friday, UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires reported that since the ceasefire began on October 10, 2025, at least 67 children have been killed by Israeli fire.
Pires added that dozens of other children have sustained injuries during the same period.
He highlighted that although UNICEF is currently conducting large humanitarian interventions in Gaza, the aid reaching the territory falls far short of the critical needs on the ground
"If the required aid and support had reached more quickly, we would have been able to do more," Pires stated.
He also described a dire humanitarian situation in Gaza where hundreds of thousands of displaced children are living in tents while facing harsh winter conditions. Many are spending nights without heating, proper insulation, or blankets, leaving them dangerously exposed to extreme cold.
Over 20,000 children killed
Since the ceasefire began on 11 October, the Israeli military has persistently violated the truce, killing 312 Palestinians and injuring 760 others, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
In a statement marking World Children’s Day on Thursday, the Government Media Office in Gaza announced that the total death toll among children has exceeded 20,000 since the beginning of the Israeli genocidal war in October 2023.
The Media Office provided harrowing details regarding infant casualties, noting that 1,015 of the victims were under one year old.
Additionally, more than 450 infants were reportedly born and killed during the duration of the war.
The statement described the current reality in Gaza as one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in modern history.
It accused Israeli forces of committing a "war of genocide" that systematically targets Palestinian children, transforming the Gaza Strip into a devastated zone where over one million children face the constant threat of death, starvation, disease, and forced displacement.
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