UNICEF: At least 300 children reportedly killed in Gaza in past 300 days "A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children" ... "With hundreds more children injured, many severely, children in Gaza are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised."

UNICEF/UNI657364/Eyad El Baba Jasser, a 7-year-old child from Gaza, looks out of one of the broken walls of a tent.

AMMAN, 6 August 2026 – At least 300 children have been reportedly killed in Gaza in the 300 days since a ceasefire was announced in October 2025. This amounts to an average of one child every day, despite an agreement for the suspension of military operations and the full entry of humanitarian aid and relief almost 10 months ago.

"A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children," said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder. "With hundreds more children injured, many severely, children in Gaza are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised."

Families are now crowded into roughly a third of the Gaza Strip, sheltering in unsafe conditions among destroyed buildings, rubble and accumulated solid waste. Across the Strip, children continue to face acute malnutrition, disease, unsafe water and damaged sanitation systems. 

"Announcements made in recent days set out a roadmap for the next phase of the ceasefire, including steps towards ending hostilities and scaling up humanitarian relief. This offers new hope and a chance to finally stop children being killed," said Beigbeder. "For children in Gaza, the test is simple. Does the killing stop? Does aid reach them at scale? Do hospitals reopen and water flow? Will children return to school safely in September? Children have heard promises before. This time, agreements must translate into action."

UNICEF calls on all parties to comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law. They must protect children, safeguard their access to essential goods and services, including healthcare, education, safe water and food, and allow and facilitate safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access to children in need.

About UNICEF

UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, works to protect the rights of every child, everywhere, especially the most disadvantaged children and in the toughest places to reach. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive, and fulfil their potential.

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https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/least-300-children-reportedly-killed-gaza-past-300-days 

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Gaza remains unsafe for civilians as Israeli attacks continue, including on schools and canvas classrooms

© UNRWA/Ashraf Amra A boy runs through the destroyed streets of Gaza. (file)

UN News

Global perspective Human stories 

 

https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/08/1168077 

 

4 August 2026 Peace and Security

Gaza remains unsafe for civilians as Israeli attacks continue, including on schools and canvas classrooms, despite the October Israel-Hamas ceasefire that ended two years of war, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Tuesday.

Key points

• In Gaza City, Israeli forces shot at a tented classroom on Tuesday, hitting a Palestinian sixth grader
• In Beit Lahia, Israeli troops reportedly demolished homes and the last remaining school in a compound on Monday
• In the West Bank, Israeli authorities demolished parts of a school in southern Hebron where more than 1,000 Palestinian residents shetering there face pressure to leave

“Today in Gaza City, our partners reported that a sixth-grade student was taken to the hospital after being hit by a bullet and injured in a tented classroom,” UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said, highlighting a spate of school shootings and attacks in Occupied Palestinian Territory, from Gaza to the West Bank.

“We stress that under international humanitarian law, civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected and should not be targeted,” he said.

“Learning spaces must remain safe and protected environments for both students and teachers.”

Homes, school razed

Following a war that left most of Gaza damaged or destroyed, UN partners are reporting fresh attacks on civilian infrastructure. 

Mr. Haq said humanitarian partners had already mobilised support for those displaced after Israeli forces reportedly demolished homes and the last remaining school in what was previously a four-school compound in Beit Lahia as well as tents sheltering nearly a dozen families.

Israeli troops also placed new cement blocks nearby, marking a further expansion of restricted areas beyond the terms of the October ceasefire.

Since then, Israeli attacks have led to 1,209 fatalities and 3,943 injuries in Gaza.

West Bank demolitions 

Across the occupied West Bank meanwhile, more than 80 Palestinian schools are currently subject to demolition or related orders, the UN Deputy Spokesperson said.

Israeli authorities demolished parts of a school in the Masafer Yatta area of southern Hebron, where more than 1,000 Palestinian residents are under pressure to leave, he said.

“So far this year, our education partners have reached more than 60,000 students in the West Bank through remedial and catch-up learning programmes,” Mr. Haq said.

Efforts have rehabilitated 30 schools, provided transportation assistance and other protective measures to more than 2,600 students and education personnel in high-risk areas and delivered education-specific cash assistance, psychosocial support and legal aid, Mr. Haq said.

He emphasised that funding remains critically low.

News Tracker: Past Stories on This Issue

Israel violates Lebanese airspace, kills over two dozen in Gaza in weekend strikes

3 August 2026

Peace and Security

Israeli forces reportedly killed more than two dozen Palestinians in Gaza and violated Lebanese airspace more than 100 times over the weekend despite ongoing ceasefire agreements, UN agencies and peacekeepers said on Monday.

Middle East: Civilian death toll climbs in Gaza, Lebanon and West Bank as UN chief demands ‘the fighting must stop’

31 July 2026

Peace and Security

Violence and civilian casualties are rising across the Middle East – from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza to continued hostilities in Lebanon and the West Bank – UN agencies reported on Friday as the Secretary-General declared “the fighting must stop”.

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The Evolving Infrastructure of Palestinian Refugee Camps: Perpetuating the Temporary

Fawwar camp, 1950s, UNRWA Archive.

UNRWA's Shelter Program

Broadly speaking, three types of camps existed in the 1950s: camps that evolved by refugees' efforts alone, camps where UNRWA replaced tents with huts or shelters or assisted refugees in this undertaking, and camps built fully by UNRWA. By 1955 UNRWA's approach moved from ad hoc to a more organized shelter program, the main objective of which was to replace tents with shelters in existing camps. By 1959 most tents were replaced with concrete huts. UNRWA shelters in all locations were based on a generic model: a small hut on a relatively large plot to which the family could add rooms and amenities as they found necessary and could afford. According to UNRWA, camps inhabitants generally built a kitchen, latrine, and additional living room as soon as they could, followed by a wall to enclose the plot.

The second objective of the shelter program was to provide grants of materials or money to encourage camp inhabitants to construct their own shelters, often presented as self-help. The practices, however, varied greatly. On the West Bank, East Bank , and in Gaza, UNRWA contractors constructed a large number of shelters. In Lebanon, UNRWA mostly distributed roofing material to refugees who constructed their own shelters. In Syria, it distributed roofing grants and cash grants to refugees, with parallel grants from the Syrian government.

The third objective of the shelter program was to build new camps. One central aim of camps was to bring order, low population density, and improved hygiene to the site. The layout plan (reproduced below) included twin shelters (black squares) with adjoining plots (white squares). There were specific zones for shelters, water sources, latrines, and open spaces and for installations like schools, clinics, and centers, connected by a system of circular roads.

Despite the disciplinary powers of both UNRWA and the host state, the refugees' own agencies imprinted their own meaning on the space and meaning of the camps. In some camp quarters, refugees reconstructed the pattern of organization in their lost village in Palestine. Settling in such microclusters helped establish belonging, familiarity, and security. Camps symbolized loss and defeat but became a powerful field to organize and express national identity and sentiment.

UNRWA established camp regulations, and one aim was to regulate refugees' building. In this undertaking, it relied on host country enforcement. Lebanon placed the most restrictions on refugee construction and refugees, but the degree of host country involvement varied. By the 1960s, UNRWA reported that camps were already overcrowded and in need of repair and maintenance. Shelters and camps had been built at low standards, and refugees' needs were higher than could be met by UNRWA, which was strained by limited funds and refugee and host country attitudes, both... READ MORE https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/22473/evolving-infrastructure-palestinian-refugee-camps

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Israel’s strike on Gaza City killed a mother, three children and one of their relatives on Saturday morning, while Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said a strike in a tent camp caused a fire, killing seven, including a father, his three children and three grandchildren.

Gaza’s health ministry has recorded more than 500 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the start of the ceasefire on 10 October. 

The strikes came a day before a border crossing is expected to open in Gaza’s southernmost city, a reminder that the death toll is still rising even as a ceasefire agreement inches forward.

All of the territory’s border crossings have been closed since the start of the war, and Palestinians see the Rafah crossing with Egypt as a lifeline for the tens of thousands in need of treatment outside the territory because most of its medical infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli bombardment.

Israel wants to ensure that more Palestinians leave Gaza than enter it, according to Reuters, which said Israel is aiming to allow only 150 Palestinians into Gaza through Rafah each day. 

Palestinians inspect damage to a tent hit by an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on 31 January. Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

At least 71,654 people have been killed in Gaza- Cumulative deaths recorded as a direct result of Israeli aggression since October 2023

Most of Gaza has been levelled and basic infrastructure remains inoperable as a result of Israeli bombing over the past two years, which has also killed more than 70,000 Palestinians. Last year, a UN commission of inquiry found that Israel had committed a genocide in Gaza.

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/31/israeli-strikes-gaza-kill-at-least-12-reports

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Families are struggling to survive amid the devastation. Israel’s ban on international NGOs will worsen this disaster: The Guardian view on Gaza’s winter [ISRAEL'S WAR ON PALESTINIANS]... the world must take heed as Palestinian suffering deepens again

A child at al-Bureij refugee camp, Nusairat, Gaza Strip. Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock

As Gaza enters the bleakest period of winter, children are dying of hypothermia, drowning in flooded camps and burning to death as their families try to cook in flimsy tents. Israel destroyed nine out of 10 homes over more than two years of war. Camped amid the ruins, Palestinians struggle against strong winds, heavy rain and freezing temperatures. Aid deliveries resumed following the ceasefire, staving off the famine that had taken hold in parts of the territory, but remain wholly insufficient: 1.6 million people face acute food insecurity. The sanitation infrastructure has collapsed.

The UK, Canada, Japan, France and six other nations have jointly warned that the situation is catastrophic. Yet Israel is now deepening one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. On Tuesday, it announced that it is deregistering 37 NGOs active in Gaza. They must cease all operations there by 1 March unless they meet its new “security and transparency standards” – including by disclosing the personal details of staff. Many of the listed groups are among the best-regarded in their field, including Oxfam, Médecins Sans Frontières and the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, was right to describe this as outrageous – and as part of a pattern of unlawful restrictions on humanitarian access. Israeli NGOs have warned that it breaks the principles of independence and neutrality for humanitarian organisations.

Israel says that the measures are necessary to prevent NGOs employing staff with links to extremist groups. It has repeatedly claimed that Hamas has infiltrated aid organisations and exploited international aid, while providing little evidence. Given the many relief workers arbitrarily detained and killed since the war began, the demand for staff lists has prompted alarm. Israel has reportedly refused requests for meetings on the issue.

Meanwhile, as Israel bars life-saving supplies such as tent poles and generators from humanitarian shipments, claiming they could be exploited for military purposes, it allows traders to bring such items into the territory. While ordinary Palestinians suffer, players inside and outside the territory profit financially and politically. US officers in Israel have reportedly urged that key items, including tent poles, be removed from the blacklist – without success... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/02/the-guardian-view-on-gazas-winter-the-world-must-take-heed-as-palestinian-suffering-deepens-again

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More rain. More human misery, despair and death. Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required. Meanwhile, as the largest UN agency on the ground, #UNRWAworks to do what we can. We could multiply these efforts tomorrow if aid flowed in. — @UNLazzarini

UNRWA

@UNRWA

 

More rain. 

 

More human misery, despair and death. 

 

Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. 

 

People in #Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. 

 

There is nothing inevitable about this. 

 

Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required.  

 

Meanwhile, as the largest UN agency on the ground, #UNRWAworks to do what we can. 

 

We could multiply these efforts tomorrow if aid flowed in. — 

 

@UNLazzarini

 

https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2005212020862243325/photo/1 

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Suddenly, a strong windstorm turns all the displaced persons sheltering here into tentless... Israeli occupation authorities must have [SHOULD HAVE] allowed the entry of 60,000 mobile homes in January, but they have allowed the entry of nothing. - Journalist Motasem A Dalloul

 Motasem A Dalloul

@AbujomaaGaza

 

Suddenly, a strong windstorm turns all the displaced persons sheltering here into tentless...

 

Israeli occupation authorities must have [SHOULD HAVE] allowed the entry of 60,000 mobile homes in January, but they have allowed the entry of nothing.

 https://x.com/AbujomaaGaza/status/2005601308183847005/photo/2

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Motasem A Dalloul

@AbujomaaGaza

 

Gaza is heading to a more extreme cold, rain and windstorm.. Pray for us.. 

 

https://x.com/AbujomaaGaza/status/2005343029285224535/photo/1

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