La famine au cœur du génocide

Famine at the heart of the genocide

Ghaza

The Palestinian metropolis, where the state of famine was declared on August 22, is only the shadow of itself. “Last refuge for families in the north of the Ghaza band, it quickly becomes a place where childhood cannot survive,” she said by videoconference. “It is a city of fear, exodus and funeral”. It describes a daily life where the unthinkable does not take advantage of the horizon: “it is already there”.

More than half of the local nutrition centers supported by UNICEF have stopped working. Malnutrition eats away the youngest residents. In the hospitals she visits, skeletal children starve, others lie on beds, “their small shredded bodies” by bursts of shells. Babies lose sight, their hair and the strength to walk. “An hour in a nutrition clinic is enough to erase any question about the existence of a famine,” she insisted, in response to certain senior Israeli officials, who deny the existence of famine in the enclave.

Suspended lives
Health infrastructure in the city collapsed. Five hospitals out of 11 in total still benefit from neo-natal intensive care units. According to the spokesperson, the forty incubators they have operated “at 200 % of their capacity”, forced to accommodate two newborns per device. “No less than 80 babies are fighting for their life in overcrowded machines,” she says, depending on a fuel that threatens to run out. In this health chaos, individual dramas follow one another. Tess Ingram says she met Muna, 13, amputated after a strike that killed her mother and two young brothers and sisters: “I have a very pain, but I’m not sad for my leg. I am sad to have lost my mother, ”she said on Monday. “Last refuge for families in the north of the enclave, the city of Gaza quickly becomes a place where childhood cannot survive,” Tess Ingram, Unicef ​​spokesperson in Ghaza. “Last refuge for families in the north of the enclave, the city quickly becomes a place where childhood cannot survive” according to Unicef ​​spokesperson in Ghaza. UNICEF continues to send food, drinking water, energy cookies or psychological support. But the extent of needs greatly exceeds capacities. Since February, the number of children admitted for malnutrition throughout the Gazaoui territory has exploded, from 2,000 per month to 13,000 in July. According to the agency, 500 to 600 aid trucks would be necessary each day to meet basic needs. However, “the UN and its Partners NGOs must accommodate an average of 41 trucks per day,” said Tess Ingram. The blockages of the Israeli army are multiple, both at the crossing point to Ghaza and at the level of traffic and distribution within the enclave. The spokesperson urged the international community to act. UNICEF claims $ 716 million for its response to Ghaza in 2025. For the time being, the agency has received less than 40 % of the necessary funding. Nutrition, a vital sector, is only covered in 17 %. Beyond the figures, Tess Ingram hammers the moral emergency: “The life of the Palestinians is being dismantled, regularly but surely. (…) The cost of inaction will be measured by the life of children buried in the rubble – exhausted by hunger and silenced before he even had the opportunity to speak. ”

More right to education
The month of September of each year, usually marks the start of the start of the school year all over the world, but in Ghaza. And because of the war, more than 700,000 children in the Palestinian enclave may be deprived of school for the third consecutive year, warn the United Nations humanitarian agencies. The start of the school year was to take place on September 1, but since October 7, 2023, children have not been going to school. For almost three years, the majority of children have lived far from home, often under tents, in a climate of deprivation and a landscape of destruction. About 56,000 children aged six is ​​expected to enter school for the first time this year. The OCHA specifies that out of the more than 660,000 students who have already lost two consecutive school years, some 71,000 of them cannot go to higher education because they have not been able to take the general secondary education examinations (Tawjihi) in the past two years. According to the UN sectoral group in charge of education, only about 38 % of school -aged children (250,000 out of 658,000) were able to access a form of learning organized or supported by agencies in the past two years. Thanks to temporary learning spaces, children were able to take advantage of a combination of psychosocial support, recreational activities and a certain continuity of education. “In other words, more than 60 % of school -aged children have had no form of learning or support for almost two years,” regretted the OCHA. Only 1,730 students from the 2022-2023 promotion were able to take the “Tawjihi” exams organized by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in July 2025, of which approximately 94 % were received. It is planned to organize additional examinations for the 2023-2024 promotion in the next two weeks. More broadly, the partners responsible for education continue to deal with enormous challenges to extend access to education to children in a context of hostilities, bombing, destruction, travel, access to access and financial constraints. More than 86 % of Ghaza is found in areas militarized by Israel or in areas subject to travel orders. According to the OCHA, 166 temporary learning areas have been forced to suspend their activities due to insecurity and travel orders since the beginning of 2025. During the same period, 239 additional temporary learning areas were destroyed or closed due to financial constraints. Internet limited access hinders online learning, including courses organized by UNRWA and the Ministry.

97% of destroyed schools.
Association attacks and educational infrastructure also continue, in particular air strikes and bombings by the Israeli army on schools welcoming displaced people inside the country. A total of 394 incidents have been recorded by the sectoral group on education since October 2023, including 117 between January and August 2025. “These attacks kill and injure not only civilians, but also feed fear among parents, children and teachers, which harms participation in emergency educational activities”, deplores the OCHA. The education system of the Palestinian enclave is thus on the verge of collapse, almost all school buildings having been damaged since the start of the war. For its part, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) notes that Israel has partially or completely destroyed 97 % of Ghaza schools, based on satellite images provided by the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT) dated July 8. The destruction of these schools comes after the majority of them have been transformed into shelters to accommodate people fleeing Israeli bombings. According to UNOSAT, more than nine in ten schools, including those of UNRWA, must be fully rebuilt or be the subject of heavy rehabilitation work to become functional again.

Samir Sabek
Source: UN Press Service