In an interview with FRANCE 24, Catherine Russell, the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) sounded the alarm about the plight of children in Gaza after more than five months of Israel's war with Hamas.

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“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths, which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's deputy executive director for humanitarian action, in a statement last week.

UNICEF spokeswoman Tess Ingram has just returned from working in Gaza. In Perspective, she detailed the reality for children trying to survive during Israel’s military offensive. Calling the situation in Gaza "appalling", with many people living in makeshift shelters amid the cold and rain, she warned that a lack of food is leading to malnutrition in children.

Three months on from the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza, the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave is increasingly dire. The death toll continues to climb and the injured are struggling to receive adequate treatment in hospitals on the brink of collapse.

UNICEF spokesperson Toby Fricker says that the number translates to “420 children being killed or injured every day” and that an immediate humanitarian ceasefire is needed to provide access to life-saving supplies.

A new UN report says that more than 43 million children were uprooted between 2016 and 2021 due to weather disasters fuelled by climate change.