Ceasefire in Name Only: UN Reports Dozens of Palestinian Children Killed Since Truce Began

GENEVA – A United Nations agency has starkly condemned the continued violence in Gaza, revealing that at least 67 Palestinian children have been killed since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement was supposed to take effect last month, shattering the illusion of a lasting peace.

The announcement from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) underscores a devastating pattern of violence that has persisted despite the truce between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 10.

A Staggering Pattern of Violence

“This is during an agreed ceasefire. The pattern is staggering,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires told reporters during a news conference in Geneva on Friday. He detailed that the death toll includes a baby girl killed in an Israeli air strike on a home in Khan Younis on Thursday, and seven other children killed a day earlier during a wave of Israeli attacks across the enclave.

“As we have repeated many times, these are not statistics: Each was a child with a family, a dream, a life – suddenly cut short by continued violence,” Pires emphasized, urging the world to see the human tragedy behind the numbers.

The ceasefire, intended to de-escalate tensions and facilitate humanitarian aid, has been repeatedly violated. Israel has launched strikes in response to what it says are attacks by Palestinian armed groups, while Hamas has accused Israel of using isolated incidents as a pretext for a “dangerous escalation” and a resumption of what it calls a “genocide” in Gaza.

A Generation Scarred by War

The latest casualties are a grim addition to the catastrophic toll the war has taken on Gaza’s children. Since the conflict began in October 2023, UNICEF estimates that 64,000 children have been killed or injured. The humanitarian organization Save the Children provided a further harrowing statistic this week, reporting that in 2024 alone, an average of 475 Palestinian children have suffered lifelong disabilities each month, including traumatic brain injuries and severe burns.

The group has labeled Gaza “home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history,” a testament to the brutal nature of the bombardment and the overwhelmed, under-resourced medical facilities.

Beyond the immediate violence, a man-made humanitarian catastrophe, fueled by Israel’s severe restrictions on aid, continues to claim young lives. The territory is grappling with widespread famine, and several hunger-related deaths among children have been reported. Children are especially vulnerable to malnutrition, which can cause irreversible physical and cognitive damage.

Echoes of Terror on the Ground

The human cost of the recent strikes was documented by medical staff and survivors. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that its teams in Gaza treated several women and children “with open fractures and gunshot wounds to their limbs and head.”

An MSF nurse working at a mobile clinic in Gaza City, identified only as Zaher, described treating a woman with a severe leg injury and a nine-year-old girl with a facial wound caused by Israeli quadcopter gunfire.

A patient at the beleaguered al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Malaka, recounted the moment his family’s shelter was hit. “I heard the sounds of two incoming missiles before I lost consciousness,” he told MSF. “I opened my eyes and saw my father on the ground, and I saw my three brothers on the ground, covered in blood and dust was everywhere. I could hear people screaming everywhere … the tents had become ashes, and people were lying on the ground everywhere.”

A Winter of Deepening Despair

Compounding the trauma of violence is a deepening struggle for survival. With Israel continuing to restrict the delivery of essential humanitarian aid, including winter tents, families displaced by the war are facing the cold and rain with little protection.

UNICEF’s Pires painted a dire picture of the conditions for children, many of whom are “sleeping in the open” and “trembling in fear while living in flooded, makeshift shelters.”

“For hundreds of thousands of children living in tents over the rubble of their former homes, the new [winter] season is a threat multiplier,” he said. “Children are shivering through the night with no heating, no insulation, and too few blankets.”

He concluded with a powerful plea, stating, “The reality imposed on Gaza’s children remains brutally simple: There is no safe place for them and the world cannot continue to normalize their suffering.” His words serve as a stark reminder that for the children of Gaza, the promised ceasefire has offered little reprieve from a nightmare that shows no sign of ending.

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