The United Nations children's agency estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been left unaccompanied or separated from their families nearly four months after Israel attacked the enclave.
UNICEF announced Friday that nearly all children in the Strip also require mental health support.
“Each [child] There are heartbreaking stories of loss and grief,” said Jonathan Clicks, UNICEF's communications director for the occupied Palestinian territories.
“this [17,000] This number corresponds to 1 percent of the total number of displaced persons, or 1.7 million people,” he said in a media briefing via video link from Jerusalem. The figure is an estimate, as it is almost impossible to verify the information at present. He said that.
Each is “a child coming to terms with a frightening new reality,” he added.
Mr Clicks said tracking down the identities of unaccompanied children was proving to be “very difficult”. Children are sometimes rushed to the hospital with injuries or shock, and “they can't even say their names.”
He said it was common during the conflict for extended families to care for orphaned children.
However, in Gaza, “extended families themselves are suffering due to a complete lack of food, water, and shelter, struggling to feed their own children and families, while quickly being forced to care for other children.” “We are faced with the challenge of doing so,” Clicks said. .
UNICEF broadly refers to separated children as unaccompanied children and unaccompanied children as separated children with no other relatives.
'Nearly all children' need mental health support
Clicks also said that the mental health of children in Gaza has been severely affected by the attacks, and that one million children in the Gaza Strip are in need of mental health support.
Children in Gaza are exhibiting symptoms of “high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping, and emotional outbursts and panic attacks whenever they hear bombings,” he said.
Before the violence erupted, UNICEF estimated that more than 500,000 children in Gaza were in need of mental health and psychosocial support.
The organization now believes that “nearly all children need such support.” “That's over a million kids,” Clicks said.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 27,100 people in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, including about 11,500 children.
More than 66,200 others have been injured amid a severe shortage of medical supplies and functioning medical facilities. Thousands more are missing, trapped under rubble.
This is a list of names we know from the more than 11,500 Palestinian children killed during Israel's ongoing war in Gaza ⤵️
Know their names: https://t.co/l9T4EJlRKT pic.twitter.com/vaLsXK7r6P
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 2, 2024
Families have been forced to flee their homes multiple times since the war began as Israeli ground forces surround large parts of northern, central and eastern Gaza. Many people are now packed into the southern province of Rafah, which Israel says is its next target.
Many people who fled their homes were shot and arrested. Those who reach the south are often unable to contact relatives and caregivers in other parts of the enclave, especially during periods of communication disruption.
“Children have nothing to do with this conflict. But they are suffering in a way that no child should ever have to suffer,” Clicks said.
“No child should ever be exposed to the level of violence we saw on October 7th, or the level of violence we have seen since.”
He called for a ceasefire to allow UNICEF to properly count unaccompanied and separated children, trace relatives and provide mental health support.
