UNICEF and senior UN officials have issued a stark denunciation of the intensifying Israeli assault on Gaza, describing the situation as a systematic campaign of annihilation that has turned childhood into a daily ordeal of terror.
For nearly two years, Palestinian children have endured unrelenting bombardment, which UNICEF now identifies as a defining feature of life under occupation.
Speaking on behalf of the agency, Amar Ammar, Regional Chief for Advocacy and Communications in the Middle East and North Africa, underscored the devastating toll of the ongoing airstrikes.
Beyond the staggering number of deaths and injuries, he warned of irreversible psychological harm affecting over one million children. The trauma inflicted, he said, threatens to derail their emotional and cognitive development for years to come.
Ammar further revealed that more than half a million people in Gaza are now engulfed in famine conditions. Starvation-related deaths, entirely preventable, continue to rise, while images of skeletal children and dying infants circulate with no meaningful international intervention. He described the crisis as a deliberate act of deprivation, not a consequence of scarcity.
The situation has deteriorated to catastrophic levels, particularly among children. In July alone, over twelve thousand cases of acute malnutrition were recorded. Nearly one in four children now suffers from its most lethal form, with consequences that will haunt their bodies and minds long after the bombs stop falling.
Despite UNICEF’s efforts to scale up its operations, the delivery of food, medicine, and life-saving assistance continues to face severe delays and restrictions due to logistical challenges and the ongoing blockade enforced by Israeli authorities.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the famine as a manufactured catastrophe, a moral failure and a collapse of international accountability.
“This is a policy that’s at work.”
A UN-backed food security body has declared parts of Gaza to be officially in famine, created by Israel. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says 12,000 Palestinian children are acutely malnourished. pic.twitter.com/X2sk0xvDn8
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 24, 2025
He emphasized that starvation in Gaza is not the result of natural disaster but the outcome of deliberate policies that have dismantled the infrastructure needed for survival.
In a unified appeal, UNICEF, WHO, UNRWA, and other UN bodies have called for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, unrestricted humanitarian access, and the protection of journalists and medical personnel.
They also demanded legal accountability for grave violations of international law. The UN’s humanitarian office confirmed that more than 240 journalists have been killed since the onset of the genocide, and that food aid continues to be obstructed, looted, or denied, leaving hundreds of thousands without access to basic sustenance.
