Attachments
HIGHLIGHTS
- Mass displacement trauma, as over 450,000 children in Gaza City face "devastating consequences" from military operations, with 70 per cent experiencing sleep disturbances and psychological distress.
- Healthcare system collapses, as four additional hospitals forced to close in northern Gaza, leaving children with disabilities and preterm babies in incubators at extreme risk.
- Drinking and domestic water was continuously provided by UNICEF to cover more than 1.6 million people in the Gaza Strip (including 600,000 children), while health care was provided to 40,000 people, and 78,000 children were screened for malnutrition.
- In the West Bank, UNICEF delivered 523,000 vaccine doses, refurbished five Primary Health Care centres, provided child protection services for over 3,000 children, and supported 6,000+ students with remedial learning.
- UNICEF requires US$ 346.6 million to meet urgent humanitarian needs, with the funding gap for Nutrition activities remaining at 77 per cent.
SITUATION IN NUMBERS
1,700,000 Children in need of humanitarian assistance
3,300,000 People in need of humanitarian assistance
1,939,232 People displaced
1,445,000 Children face setbacks in their education
FUNDING OVERVIEW AND PARTNERSHIPS
An Inter-Agency Flash Appeal9 was issued on 11 December 2024 and outlined the need for US$ 4 billion10 to assist 3 million people, 2.1 million in the Gaza Strip and 900,000 in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, through December 2025.11 Aligned with this appeal, UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal – revised in August 2025 to update programme indicators and target figures 12 – seeks US$ 716.5 million to meet the urgent needs of children and their families. As of now, only 52 per cent of the appeal is funded.13 UNICEF urgently requires an additional US$ 346.6 million to scale up life-saving assistance.
Flexible funding enables UNICEF to adapt to the evolving realities on the ground to respond promptly and more effectively to prioritise lifesaving assistance to children and their families where it is most needed. Without adequate funding, children are at a greater risk of malnutrition, at risk of not being reunified with their families, and at risk of not being able to access essential services, including safe water and health care.
UNICEF benefited in 2025 from the Global Humanitarian Thematic Funding from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and UNICEF national committees, which enabled UNICEF to respond with agility to the acute and fast-evolving needs of the most vulnerable children and their families.
UNICEF sincerely thanks its partners for their valuable and timely contributions, including the governments of Australia, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Kuwait, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, United States, as well as the European Union, European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance, Norway and the OCHA Country-based Pooled Fund. Through UNICEF National Committees, UNICEF is grateful for the assistance provided by the peoples of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States. UNICEF would also like to thank private sector companies in Algeria, Argentina, Bahrain, Belarus, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.
SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
Gaza Strip
In September 2025, Gaza’s humanitarian collapse deepened alongside an intensification of fighting, particularly in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and parts of Khan Younis. Gaza City was declared a dangerous combat zone by Israeli forces, with strikes impacting homes, shelters, and makeshift clinics, and explicit directives for civilians to relocate south, triggering the displacement of thousands of civilians. The health system neared total breakdown, with over 90 per cent of hospitals15 damaged or closed and severe shortages of fuel, medicine, and staff. Famine conditions worsened, and over half a million people face catastrophic food insecurity. The blockade of entry routes continued to limit relief access. Despite the prospect of a ceasefire, civilian casualties surged, including amongst children.
Since 7 October 2023 and as of 5 September 2025, over 67,139 Palestinians, including at least 19,423 children and 10,427 women, have been reported killed. As many as 13,549 fatalities, including more than 3,438 children, were reported since the ceasefire ended on 18 March 2025.16 Additionally, more than 169,583 Palestinians were reported injured, including at least 44,091 children.17 Humanitarian workers also continue to face deadly risks, with 562 reported fatalities, including 376 UN staff.18
As of 10 September 2025, at least 793 attacks on healthcare have been recorded by WHO since October 2023 (of which, 145 in 2025). Ongoing attacks and resource shortages have severely weakened the health system – damaging or destroying 94 per cent of hospitals, overwhelming remaining partially functional ones, and disrupting essential health service delivery. The Health Cluster reports that hospitals are overwhelmed by mass casualty incidents, with an average of eight incidents per day. 19 20 Fuel shortages forced many to operate on limited shifts, severely restricting emergency and overnight care. Strikes, medical supply shortages, and staff gaps continue to push the health system toward collapse.
As of September 2025, at least 41,844 people in Gaza - including up to a quarter who are children – are living with major, potentially lifechanging injuries requiring ongoing rehabilitation.21 The most common injuries are major extremity trauma, amputations, burns, spinal cord and brain injuries. Rehabilitation services have been decimated, with a 62 per cent decrease in facilities and no service fully operational. Children and people with disabilities face extreme barriers to accessing care, including destroyed infrastructure, lack of assistive devices, and critical shortages of rehabilitation professionals. The urgent need for rehabilitation is compounded by widespread displacement, malnutrition, and severe mental health challenges.
The mental health and psychosocial support needs of those injured - and their families - are significant. Survivors face profound psychological challenges, including coping with physical pain, the loss of family members, displacement, and the daily struggle for survival. Women and men experience these challenges differently: women and girls often carry additional caregiving burdens and face heightened protection risks, while men and boys may encounter barriers in expressing emotional distress due to social norms around masculinity. The shortage of adequate, gender-responsive mental health services further compounds the suffering of both patients and their families. The lack of adequate mental health services further exacerbates the suffering of both patients and their families. Younger children are disproportionately affected by traumatic injury. Of all trauma health events documented by Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs), 6.7 per cent (11,291 events) occurred in children under five years old. Across nearly all injury types except extremity injuries, children under five were more likely to sustain major injuries compared to older children, reflecting their anatomical vulnerability (smaller extremities relative to head and body size). Notably, children under five accounted for 11 per cent of all amputations performed by EMTs (152 out of 1,350), highlighting the devastating impact of the conflict on the youngest and most vulnerable.
Despite UNICEF reporting that Gaza has the highest per capita rate of childhood amputation in the world,22 there are only eight trained prosthetists working in Gaza. This critical shortage means that many children and adults with amputations lack access to essential assistive devices, such as prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs, further compounding their vulnerability and limiting their ability to participate in daily life.
West Bank, including East Jerusalem
In September 2025, the West Bank continued to witness an intensification of settler violence incidents, significant forced displacement, and demolitions. These incidents have had severe implications for civilians, with women, men, girls, and boys affected in distinct ways. Children in particular continue to face threats to their rights and physical and mental well-being, particularly due to recurrent militarised operations, grave violations, movement restrictions, demolitions, and settler violence. Girls and boys are exposed to different protection risks, with girls facing heightened vulnerabilities to psychosocial distress and access barriers to education and health services, while boys are also at increased risk of physical harm, arrest, and exposure to violence.
From 7 October 2023 to 30 September 2025, at least 925 Palestinians were killed in conflict-related violence in the West Bank, including 223 Palestinian and 3 Israeli children in the West Bank and over 1,817 Palestinian children were injured, 43 per cent by live ammunition (slight decrease).23 According to OCHA, nearly 7,500 raids by Israeli forces across the West Bank, mainly search and arrest operations, have taken place so far in 2025, a 37-per-cent increase compared with the same period in 2024, from January to September. Between January and September 2025, 41 Palestinian children were killed, the majority by live ammunition during militarised law enforcement operations in the Northern governorates. Child fatalities dropped by 50 per cent overall compared to the same period last year (Jan-Sept 2024 and Jan-Sept 2025), likely due to the mass forced displacement of residents of Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps and subsequent reduction of Israeli Forces (IF) militarized law enforcement operations and airstrikes in these areas. Daytime IF patrols targeting Jenin's main commercial areas near the camp have intensified, hampering normal life. Regarding access to health, 145 attacks on health care were reported by WHO, 893 since 7 October 2023.
Settler violence is intensifying; in one week, 27 attacks from settlers on Palestinians were reported (OCHA), killing one Palestinian in Ramallah governorate (Mugghayer town), injuring 17, causing property damage, and forcing the displacement of three families including children in the northern Jordan Valley. From January 2024 to September 2025, OCHA documented more than 2,660 settler attacks against Palestinians, with nearly two-thirds of incidents in Ramallah (26 per cent), Nablus (20 per cent), and Hebron (18 per cent) governorates.24 In communities affected by recurrent settler violence, children face an increased risk of psychosocial distress, physical violence, and disrupted access to their education, while their parents, particularly women who often shoulder the primary caregiving role, lose access to their land and often their sole source of livelihood further deepening family vulnerability and limiting their capacity to provide for and protect their children.
In the northern West Bank, some 32,705 Palestinians including 11,755 children continue to be displaced outside of Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem refugee camps following earlier operations. In addition, since 7 October 2023, more than 7,165 Palestinians, including nearly 3,070 children, have been displaced mainly in East Jerusalem and Area C in the West Bank due to home demolitions, and destruction of their homes during operations. According to OCHA, at least 243 Palestinian households in East Jerusalem have eviction cases filed against them in Israeli courts, the majority by settler organisations, placing more than 1,000 people, including over 460 children, at risk of forced displacement.
Movement restrictions continue to disrupt access to education, healthcare, and livelihoods. During the first two weeks of September, OCHA documented the installation by Israeli forces of at least 27 new closures across the West Bank, including 18 road gates, eight earth mounds, and concrete blocks.25 More than 850 movement obstacles were established by Israeli forces in the West Bank, onethird being road gates – often closed, limiting access to health, and livelihoods. These restrictions are frequently imposed without warning and intensified following security incidents.
Nutrition, Health, and WASH conditions remained relatively stable, though access restrictions and movement limitations continued affecting children's access to basic services.
Reported Casualties and Abductions in Israel
Israeli authorities report that some 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed in the attacks of 7 October 2023, including 37 children and more than 7,500 people were reported injured. More than 250 people, including 36 children, were abducted from Israel into the Gaza Strip, of whom 202 were released or returned, including 34 children released in 2023 and two children whose remains were returned in February 2025.