UNICEF: “Nowhere Is Safe for Gaza’s Children” as Humanitarian Crisis Deepens

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has issued a harrowing new warning about the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Gaza Strip, describing conditions in Gaza City and the south as “utterly unlivable” and declaring that “nowhere is safe for children.”

In a stark address to the press, a senior UNICEF representative detailed scenes of unimaginable suffering: children scavenging amid rubble, hospitals overflowing with malnourished infants, and families forced to flee yet again under new evacuation orders — often with nowhere left to go.

Children Trapped in a War Without Refuge

“Gaza City remains home to tens of thousands of children,” the UNICEF official said. “Shoeless children push grandparents in wheelchairs around rubble. Amputee children struggle through the dust. Mothers carry children whose skin is bleeding from rashes. And children gaze skyward tracking the fire from helicopters and quadcopters.”

The question UNICEF staff hear most from families is simple but devastating: “Where can I go that will be safe?”

The answer, after nearly two years of relentless bombardment and siege, remains the same — nowhere.

The Collapse of Safety and Shelter

According to UNICEF, a further 200,000 civilians have been ordered to leave Gaza City, joining the more than 400,000 people already displaced to the south. Yet displacement offers no safety. Areas designated as “safe zones,” such as Al-Mawasi, are now among the most densely populated places on Earth, with dire sanitation and health conditions.

In Al-Mawasi, 85 percent of families live within 10 meters of open sewage, garbage, or stagnant water, while two-thirds lack access to soap or clean water. Disease is spreading rapidly. “The notion of safe zones is farcical,” the UNICEF spokesperson said. “Bombs fall with chilling predictability. Schools turned into shelters are destroyed, tents are burned, and families are wiped out in their sleep.”

At Nasser Hospital, UNICEF teams met children who had been paralyzed, burned, or had limbs amputated in overnight airstrikes targeting tent encampments. Others, at Al Aqsa Hospital, had been shot by quadcopters.

Hospitals at Breaking Point

Health facilities across Gaza are on the verge of total collapse. At Al Helou Hospital, which was shelled last week, the Intensive Care Unit for infants is overflowing. The Patient Friendly Hospital in Gaza City receives 60 to 80 children daily suffering from malnutrition and preventable diseases.

“In Nasser Hospital, the corridors are lined with women who have just given birth,” the UNICEF official said. “Three premature babies share a single oxygen source—each breathing for twenty minutes before giving way to the next.”

One newborn, Nada, who weighed just two kilograms, was discharged from intensive care after 21 days — only to be left lying on the corridor floor with her mother, exposed to infection and without proper medical care.

Doctors report a spike in miscarriages among women forced to walk long distances while fleeing bombardment. Winter viruses are spreading early in overcrowded shelters. At least 1,000 babies have been killed in the past two years, according to reports, though the true number of deaths from malnutrition, dehydration, and disease remains unknown.

A Humanitarian System Under Siege

UNICEF and its partners continue to operate under near-impossible conditions. The agency is supplying Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for malnourished children, repairing water pipelines, providing cash assistance, and delivering lifesaving medical equipment, mental health support, and waste collection services.

However, aid deliveries remain severely restricted, with convoys frequently delayed, obstructed, or denied entry. “Until all restrictions are removed on the entry and delivery of humanitarian aid, the provision of lifesaving assistance will continue to be woefully inadequate,” the official warned.

“A War on Children”

Since the escalation of hostilities, UNICEF has repeatedly briefed the international community about Gaza’s escalating humanitarian disaster — describing it as a “war on children” that has also fueled famine, disease outbreaks, and the collapse of essential services. Despite these warnings, conditions continue to worsen.

“The world has adjusted to this level of suffering,” the UNICEF representative said. “When the international community normalizes this scale of violence and deprivation, something is profoundly broken.”

UNICEF urged all parties to the conflict — and the governments that influence them — to uphold international humanitarian law, ensure unrestricted aid access, and protect civilians, especially children.

“The strength of international law doesn’t lie in words on paper,” the official emphasized. “It lies in the resolve of countries to uphold it.”

A Generation in Peril

Nearly 1.7 million children in Gaza are estimated to be in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Many suffer from malnutrition, trauma, and preventable disease. Thousands have lost parents or siblings. With schools destroyed, most have had no access to education for nearly two years.

UNICEF warns that the psychological toll is profound and long-lasting. “We are watching a generation being scarred physically and emotionally — children who have seen their families buried, their schools flattened, and their futures stolen,” the spokesperson said.

The World’s Responsibility

As Gaza’s humanitarian crisis enters yet another deadly phase, UNICEF appealed for immediate international action to enforce ceasefire commitments, facilitate humanitarian access, and rebuild medical and social infrastructure.

“Every day that passes without decisive action means more lives lost, more futures destroyed,” the agency said. “Everyone bears some responsibility for this — but there is only one victim: Palestinian children.”