At least 300 children in Gaza have reportedly been killed in the 300 days since a ceasefire agreement came into effect on 10 October 2025, suspending military operations between Hamas fighters and the Israel Defense Forces, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday, August 6, 2026.

UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder, stated, “A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children.” He added that hundreds more children have been injured, many severely, and that children in Gaza are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised.

The deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel in October 2023 sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, resulting in a humanitarian crisis of epic scale. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing Gazan health authorities, reported that since the ceasefire announcement, 1,209 people have been killed and 3,943 injured.

Amid reports of a new United States-led peace plan and a recent spike in Israeli airstrikes targeting alleged Hamas positions, UNICEF highlighted that families are now confined to roughly one third of the Gaza Strip, sheltering among destroyed buildings, rubble, and uncleared waste.

Ongoing military operations near the so-called ‘Yellow Line’—a separation barrier consisting of concrete blocks erected by Israeli soldiers—along with strikes in other parts of the Strip, are disrupting civilian life, damaging shelters, causing renewed displacement, and restricting access to life-saving services.

Last weekend, attacks on a medical storage facility next to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah destroyed essential medical supplies, including some delivered by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

Humanitarian efforts continue, including improvements to 3,000 makeshift shelters in Gaza City and the distribution of emergency shelter and essential items to 9,000 households. More than 250,000 pre-school and school-aged children are participating in summer learning activities aimed at providing routine and stability while helping students recover some of the learning lost during hostilities.

Sources