Children Facing Extreme Hunger Crisis

The Gaza Strip is on the brink of famine. Thousands of children are at risk of dying from starvation. Their frail, weak bodies are barely clinging onto life, and the worst has yet to come. 

Gaza’s children have already endured so much – years of conflict, months of intensive bombardments, loved ones killed, homes and communities completely destroyed. Now they’re trying desperately to survive severe hunger, living in freezing tents and shattered buildings, while ongoing violence continues to threaten their lives every second of every day.

Right now, for thousands of families in the Gaza Strip, the threat of dying from hunger is very real. Immediate and critical action is needed to prevent an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Children’s lives are hanging in the balance.

Every minute counts and children desperately need your life-saving help.

 

Shaima, aged 8, stands crushed up against a steel bar waiting to receive a meal. Every day, she waits for 2 hours in the hope of bringing food back to her family. “I’ve been waiting here for two hours, but I haven’t gotten any food. My mother and my little sister are waiting for me. They haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

Donate now and help send life-saving food to children in Gaza. Together, we can fend off famine, but we need your urgent support to do so.

Please donate now

Help Children Trapped in a Living Hell

The entire population of Gaza is facing dire hunger with at least 335,000 children – that’s every single child under the age of five – at immediate risk of severe acute malnutrition. 10,000 of them are already so desperately sick they could die unless they get urgent help. Every hour that passes brings death even closer to defenceless children. They desperately need increased deliveries of emergency food and clean water. 

With the generous help of our donors, UNICEF has been delivering vital food supplies to the Gaza Strip since the outset of the hostilities. These include infant formula, nutrient supplements, and Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food for the early prevention and treatment of severe acute malnutrition.

Children wait in a long line to receive a small amount of food in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.

But with food supplies and living conditions rapidly declining and the threat of famine becoming more real with every passing minute, children urgently need much more. They need emergency food supplies right now.

Please will you help them?

Mena and her children rest in their make-shift tent near Rafah. Two of Mena’s children, Hiya and Hibab, suffer from cerebral palsy and their health is in an incredibly perilous state. Her children urgently need life-saving food now

A Mother’s Fight to Keep Her Children Alive

Mena, a mother of four in Gaza, has been displaced multiple times in the conflict and now lives in a tent, which she built herself out of blankets and bits of rope, in Rafah. 

Two of Mena’s children, Hiya and Hibab, suffer from cerebral palsy and their health is in an incredibly perilous state. They desperately need food. But since the escalation in hostilities, they haven’t been able to get nearly enough. Mena says that both children have lost about 10 kilograms. Weight that they didn’t have to lose.

“I’m exhausted,” Mena says. “The children are exhausted. We have been displaced three times. Moving is so difficult but the most difficult thing has been finding nutritious food.

“I am fighting and doing everything I can to keep them alive, to save them. But things are so bad, I am so worried. Any money I have I use it to buy food for my children. But they’re dying. Who will help me?”

To lose a child from preventable hunger and disease is a nightmare no parent should ever have to face. You can help children, like Hiya and Hibab, survive this hunger crisis. Please donate now to send life-saving food to Gaza.


How You Can Make a Difference Right Now

Please help children before it’s too late. A gift from you right now can bring a child back from the brink of death. Donate what you can today.

  • €150 gives enough therapeutic milk to help feed 9 babies who are too weak to eat.
  • €75 provides peanut paste to help treat 8 children for severe acute malnutrition, saving their lives.
  • €50 supplies high-energy biscuits and supplements to help prevent 5 children from developing malnutrition.

Donate now

“I ate a small amount of food. This was my first meal since yesterday afternoon.” Selin, 7-year-old – Gaza Strip

Other Ways to Donate

You can make a donation by phone, you can reach us on 01 878 3000, our office hours are Monday to Friday 09:00 – 17:30.

You can send your donation by post to

Freepost; UNICEF Ireland, 33 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin D01 R283.

In the unlikely event that the funds raised exceed UNICEF’s funding requirements for this appeal, your donation will be directed to where the need is greatest.

Help protect children
UNICEF | for every child

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