UNICEF warns against escalating violence in the Middle East

The recent surge in violence and attacks in the Middle East is taking a shocking toll on young lives in the region, a senior official with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday in an appeal for de-escalation.

“Children in many countries in the Middle East are facing a harsh reality today more than ever before: life shrouded by uncertainty and violence,” UNICEF Regional Director Adele Khodr said in a statement.

Almost every report of an attack includes news that children were among those killed, she said, noting that in less than a year, thousands have been killed across the State of Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and the occupied Golan Heights.

At the same time, many more children suffer “injuries that have forever marked their bodies and caused immeasurable damage to their mental health”. Many of these youngsters are also displaced and “living in a constant state of uncertainty and fear”.

Situation threatens to worsen

Ms. Khodr warned, however, that the situation for the region’s children threatens to get even worse.

“Any escalation in violence in the region will lead to severe humanitarian consequences, endangering the lives and wellbeing of many more children. It will also have long-lasting effects on the prospects for peace and stability in the Middle East,” she said.

“Immediate de-escalation is essential to safeguard the lives and wellbeing of children, as the alternative is unconscionable.”

Restraint, protection, de-escalation

She said UNICEF continues to call on all parties to urgently exercise maximum restraint and protect civilians and the critical services they rely on.

The UN agency and partners remain on the ground to provide essential services and supplies to support and protect children.

“However, what children truly need is peace and security, the opportunity for a life lived in dignity and free from deprivation and fear,” she insisted, “and that starts with de-escalation, a lasting political solution and the promise of a brighter future.”

‘Agony’ in Gaza’s hospitals

UNICEF also continues to draw attention to the plight of children in Gaza, where the level of destruction, suffering and displacement “is way beyond what you can imagine when you’re looking at a TV screen or any digital platform”.

That’s according to Salim Oweis, a communication officer with the agency, who recently visited several hospitals in the enclave.

He said conditions are crowded, with wounded and sick children “everywhere”. Some of the children have chronic illnesses such as cancer or other complicated conditions that require specialised care that is not available in Gaza’s hospitals.

“You can see children and their families in hallways, being treated in hallways, waiting in hallways. The screams and the agony [are] very, very present there,” Oweis said in an exclusive interview with UN News.

UNICEF together with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Palestine refugee, UNRWA, are gearing up for a campaign later this month to vaccinate roughly 500,000 children against polio, which was recently detected in samples taken from areas in the middle and south of Gaza.

“But, all this effort is really dependent on the access of the vaccines and to the ability to distribute and administer those vaccines to children wherever they are around the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Support for education

Meanwhile, the UN-backed global fund to support education during emergencies and protracted crises has announced a $2 million grant to provide children in Gaza with access to quality learning opportunities and mental health services.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) said war has kept some 625,000 children out of the classroom, and more than 370 schools have been damaged in attacks.

Furthermore, even before the start of the current hostilities last October, some three quarters of all children – roughly 800,000 – had already been identified as needing mental health and psychosocial support.

EWC Executive Director Yasmine Sherif said the children of Gaza continue to face unimaginable horrors.

Although the grant “will enable the first steps in restoring mental health and learning services”, she said “it represents a drop in an ocean of needs in Gaza.”

The 12-month grant will be delivered by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) through its ongoing Better Learning Programme in Palestine, which aims to improve learning conditions for children and adolescents in Gaza.

ECW has provided continuous funding for education in the State of Palestine since 2019, and total funding to date stands at approximately $36 million.