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

Citing Gazan health authorities, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the overall casualty toll since the ceasefire announcement is 1,209 people killed and 3,943 injured.

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 are injured, many severely, and are still waiting for the promised end to violence.

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

The agency noted that ongoing military operations near the so-called ‘Yellow Line’—a separation line marked by 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.

Following attacks on a medical storage facility adjacent to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah last weekend, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported that essential medical supplies, including some delivered by the agency, were destroyed.

Humanitarian efforts continue, with recent work to improve 3,000 makeshift shelters in Gaza City and the distribution of emergency shelter and essential items such as kitchen sets, tarpaulins, blankets, mattresses, solar lights, and clothes to 9,000 households.

More than 250,000 pre-school and school-aged children are participating in summer learning activities designed to provide routine and stability, and to help recover some of the educational losses caused by the hostilities.

Sources