Statement by heads of OCHA, UNICEF, UNOPS, UNRWA, WFP and WHO 7 April 2025

Statement by heads of OCHA, UNICEF, UNOPS, UNRWA, WFP and WHO

7 April 2025

For over a month, no commercial or humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza. 

More than 2.1 million people are trapped, bombed and starved again, while, at crossing points, food, medicine, fuel and shelter supplies are piling up, and vital equipment is stuck. 

Over 1,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured in just the first week after the breakdown of the ceasefire, the highest one-week death toll among children in Gaza in the past year.

Just a few days ago, the 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme during the ceasefire had to close due to flour and cooking gas shortages.

The partially functional health system is overwhelmed. Essential medical and trauma supplies are rapidly running out, threatening to reverse hard-won progress in keeping the health system operational.

The latest ceasefire allowed us to achieve in 60 days what bombs, obstruction and lootings prevented us from doing in 470 days of war: life-saving supplies reaching nearly every part of Gaza.

While this offered a short respite, assertions that there is now enough food to feed all Palestinians in Gaza are far from the reality on the ground, and commodities are running extremely low.

We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life.

New Israeli displacement orders have forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee yet again, with no safe place to go. 

No one is safe. At least 408 humanitarian workers, including over 280 from UNRWA, have been killed since October 2023.

With the tightened Israeli blockade on Gaza now in its second month, we appeal to world leaders to act – firmly, urgently and decisively – to ensure the basic principles of international humanitarian law are upheld. 

Protect civilians. Facilitate aid. Release hostages. Renew a ceasefire.

The Carnage in Gaza

Translated from Arabic Shocking and Painful… Numbers from Gaza’s Hell
534 Days of Israeli Aggression on Gaza

- Children in the Line of Fire:
• 274 infants were born and martyred under bombardment
• 876 children under the age of one were killed
• 17 children died from the cold in displacement tents
• 52 children died from hunger and malnutrition

- Victims Without a Trace:
• Over 11,200 missing, 70% of them women and children

- Unrelenting Repression:
• 1,055 children detained since the beginning of the war
• The occupation still holds more than 350 children as prisoners

- The Orphanhood Tragedy:
• 39,000 orphans – the largest orphan crisis in modern history
• Among them, 17,000 lost both parents

- Lifelong Disabilities:
• 15 children per day suffer permanent disabilities
• 7,065 children seriously injured
• 4,700 amputations, 18% of them children (846 cases)

- Newborns at Risk:
• 7,700 infants face death due to lack of care
• Polio vaccination rates have dropped from 99% to 86%

- Unprecedented Famine:
• 1.95 million suffering from acute food insecurity
• 345,000 in catastrophic phase (IPC 5)
• 60,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition
• 12,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition
• 16,500 pregnant and nursing women in need of nutritional treatment

- Systematic Destruction of Education:
• 111 public schools completely destroyed
• 241 public schools severely damaged
• 89 UNRWA schools bombed and vandalized
• 700,000 students deprived of education
• 39,000 students unable to take their final secondary exams

- Human Losses in the Education Sector:
• 12,441 students martyred
• 519 teachers martyred
• 19,819 students injured
• 2,703 teachers injured
• Schooling halted for 300 school days
• 298,000 students in remote learning face obstacles due to lack of electricity and internet

Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics