'Starving, amputated, traumatized': UN, EU sound alarm over children in Gaza

Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen. (Photo/AA)

Gaza has become the epicentre of a spiralling humanitarian catastrophe for children, with record numbers of amputations, widespread hunger, and the collapse of education, senior UN and EU officials warned on Wednesday.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said up to 4,000 amputations have been reported in Gaza since Israel’s war began in October 2023, making the enclave home to the highest number of child amputees per capita worldwide.

“The toll on children and childhood is beyond just the physical injury and the spreading hunger,” he said. “Children’s scars are deep and invisible: anxiety, nightmares, aggression, fear. Many are being forced into begging, looting or child labor — a lost childhood.”

‘Children are dying of hunger’

EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib painted an equally grim picture, warning that Palestinian children are dying of hunger, while survivors face lifelong disabilities from malnutrition.

She said famine has already been declared in Gaza City, with 44,000 children acutely malnourished since January — more than 8,000 of them in severe condition. Projections show over 130,000 children under five could be at risk by mid-2026.

“Children are dying of hunger, and those who survive risk living with lifelong disabilities,” Lahbib said, urging the international community to act with “courage and resolve” rather than mere sympathy.

Both officials highlighted the devastation of Gaza’s education system.

Nearly 660,000 students have lost two full years of schooling, while 97 percent of schools have been damaged and more than 430 directly hit by Israeli strikes since October.

In the occupied West Bank, 75 schools have been destroyed or vandalised, and 84 face demolition.

“No child will truly be safe until fighting stops,” Lahbib stressed, calling on Israel to lift its blockade, allow immediate humanitarian access, and let aid agencies operate freely.

Israel’s ongoing genocide

The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 65,400 Palestinians — most of them women and children — since October 2023.

UN investigators have concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, where famine, displacement, and bombardment have rendered the territory uninhabitable.

“The longer this goes on, the more the children will be haunted by their ongoing and deepening traumas for generations to come,” Lazzarini warned, urging a ceasefire “at least for the sake of children.”

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Source: TRT