Gaza: 300 children killed in 300 days of Israel-Hamas “ceasefire”
Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced on Thursday, August 15, 2026, that at least 300 children have been killed in Gaza in as many days since the implementation of the ceasefire agreement last October, which ostensibly halted military operations between Hamas fighters and the Israel Defense Forces.
Amid reports of a new US-led peace plan for the war-torn Gaza Strip and a recent increase in Israeli airstrikes on Hamas-linked targets in Gaza, UNICEF stressed that families are now trapped in almost a third of the Gaza Strip, sheltering among destroyed buildings, rubble and uncleared garbage.
“A ceasefire that claims the life of one child every day on average has failed for children,” said Edward Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa . “With hundreds more injured, many critically, Gaza’s children are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised.”
Responding to reports of a proposed peace plan for Gaza, the senior UN official welcomed recent announcements of “steps towards an end to hostilities” and increased humanitarian aid deliveries.
“For the children of Gaza, the test is simple,” said Mr. Beigbader. “Will the killing stop? Will aid reach them on a large scale? Will hospitals reopen and water flow? Will children return to school safely in September?” “Children have heard promises before. This time, agreements must be translated into action.”
Suffering on a massive scale
UNICEF, like many other UN agencies and partners, reiterated that children across the Gaza Strip continue to face acute malnutrition, disease, unsafe water and damaged health systems. Throughout the hostilities, the UN has not stopped working to help the people of Gaza.
And yet, despite repeated pleas for aid to flow into the besieged area – and for the killing to stop – UNICEF health workers describe how exhausted and hungry mothers continue to arrive at health facilities with their severely malnourished children.
Another consequence of this chronic lack of aid is the worrying increase in premature births, as well as an increase in babies in critical conditions.
“There are not enough incubators and in some cases [health workers] say they see two or even three babies sharing one incubator,” explained UNICEF spokesperson Louise Wattridge. “In Gaza, babies just days old are fighting for their lives in understaffed hospitals with no equipment or medicine.”
“This is what the world has decided to endure,” Ms. Wattridge added. “The killing must stop, aid must be sent on a massive scale, and children must be protected.”
The UNICEF spokesperson continued: “The world calls it a ceasefire, but families in Gaza are still burying their children.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing Gaza health authorities, announced that the total casualties since the ceasefire agreement was announced on October 10, 2025, have been 1,209 dead and 3,943 injured.
Following attacks on a medicine warehouse next to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir El-Balah last weekend, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) announced that essential medical supplies, including some items sent by the organization, had been destroyed.
