GENEVA, (PIC)
The ceasefire declared in Gaza more than eight months ago is a “deadly illusion,” the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said, noting that 265 children have been killed there since the fighting was supposed to have stopped.
“For many, many months, the world has been told there is a ceasefire in Gaza. Yet for Palestinian children, this so-called ceasefire has become a cruel and deadly illusion,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder said in a press briefing held in Geneva on Friday.
“Since the ceasefire was announced in October 2025, 265 Palestinian children have been killed across Gaza. That is an absurd and devastating figure. During a period supposedly defined by restraint and protection, a child has been killed, on average, every single day for more than eight months,” Elder explained.
“Let us be clear about what this means. These children were not killed in a warzone. They were killed in their homes, in their schools, playing football, or fishing. They were shot, bombed, and struck by quadcopters,” Elder said.
“This week: a two-year-old boy was shot and killed by Israeli forces; a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed inside his tent; a 5-year-old boy and his father were killed by an Israeli strike, and on and on it goes.”
“The suffering does not end with those killed. More than 400 children have been injured, many with catastrophic wounds. Also this week: a 12-year-old girl – whilst in her tent – was shot in the chest with live ammunition from a crane-mounted gun; a three-year-old girl was shot in the face by a bullet from a quadcopter drone while inside her home. Doctors are treating brain hemorrhages, devastating injuries to the head, chest and abdomen, and life-changing trauma,” he elaborated.
The UNICEF spokesman also warned that “continuous exposure to violence, fear, and loss has permanently altered the lives of Gaza’s children, embedding profound trauma into their daily existence.”
“This psychological distress has directly impacted their physical health, disrupting their ability to eat and sleep properly, which in turn exacerbates malnutrition and leaves them physically weakened and emotionally scarred,” he added.
The spokesman also highlighted a severe medical crisis on the ground, noting that hundreds of Gaza children urgently require medical evacuation.
He also said that Israel’s ongoing restrictions on the entry of essential medical supplies to Gaza mean that “wounded children are facing prolonged pain, alongside heightened risks of severe infections, medical complications, and further amputations.”
Condemning the ongoing casualties occurring despite a declared ceasefire, UNICEF called on the international community to stop normalizing the unprecedented scale of child deaths in Gaza.
It concluded that the ongoing crisis is not due to a lack of solutions, but rather a lack of political will, affirming that the systematic absence of accountability effectively signals that Palestinian children’s lives can be taken without consequence.