Amid calls for an immediate end to all hostilities, UNICEF is working closely with partners to rush emergency humanitarian aid to children trapped in an unfolding catastrophe in Gaza.
Trucks filled with UNICEF emergency supplies lined up in Egypt at the Rafah border crossing on Friday, Oct. 20, part of a humanitarian convoy ready to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of children remain trapped in a war zone with little or no access to food, water, electricity, medicine or medical care two weeks after deadly attacks in Israel gave way to devastating retaliatory air strikes in Gaza.
UNICEF continues to call for an immediate ceasefire as 1.1 million people — nearly half of them children — in northern Gaza have been warned to move out of the way of a widescale military assault, but with nowhere safe for them to go.
Every child is entitled to protection from harm according to international law
Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. UNICEF is calling for all parties to the conflict to unconditionally protect children from harm and afford them the special protection to which they are entitled, including safe and timely access to humanitarian aid.
“Every child, everywhere deserves peace,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
UNICEF is on the ground, working with partners to provide urgently needed water, hygiene, sanitation and medical supplies
With safe water supply dwindling, people in Gaza have resorted to boiling muddy water, increasing the risk of waterborne disease outbreaks, and drinking seawater, which causes extreme dehydration.
UNICEF has provided 50,000 liters of fuel along with water supplies to support 800,000 people with access to minimum quantities of safe water. The UNICEF desalination plant is the only one still functioning in Gaza. UNICEF has also delivered an emergency cash transfer to 1,057 households in Gaza to help parents meet their children’s basic needs.
More supplies are arriving from UNICEF’s central warehouse in Copenhagen
UNICEF has increased staff surge support in Egypt and is working to pre-position lifesaving supplies for delivery to support at least 150,000 people in Gaza.
So far, supplies UNICEF has procured and delivered to Egypt for the Gaza Strip include:
- 70 health consumable kits containing essential medicines and medical devices to benefit 70,000 people for 3 months
- 4 medicine kits to benefit 40,000 people for 3 months
- 45,000 packages of bottled water, emergency household water storage containers and hygiene kits to benefit more than 270,000 people
- 200,000 liters of fuel
- education and protection supplies including recreation kits, tarpaulins, tents and thermal blankets
UNICEF’s response will continue to focus on responding to the needs of children currently facing an urgent and pressing need for protection and humanitarian assistance. Your contribution can make a difference. Please donate.
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