Project background
Since violence escalated in Israel and occupied Palestinian Territory on 7 October 2023 more than 14,100 of Gaza’s 1.1 million children have been killed. Home, hospitals, and schools have been destroyed. Children have played no part in this conflict, yet they are the worst affected.
In Gaza, an estimated 80% of the population was already reliant on international aid to survive and access basic services. 1 in 3 people across the region were already facing severe levels of food insecurity. Now those needs have intensified, with families struggling to get enough food, water, fuel, and medical care.
The knock-on impacts of this escalation will be felt across the region, with more families forced to flee their homes and seek safety. Children’s lives and futures are at risk.
Key project activities
Our teams have been working around the clock to get vital supplies to families in Gaza – including drinking water, food, hygiene products, mattresses, blankets, learning, shelter kits, toys, and games. Our local partners inside Gaza continue to distribute these supplies across shelters and household, while we explore options to reach more children and families through direct delivery. We are providing mental health and psychosocial support to children and their families and delivering cash to families to help them buy essentials.
Our Emergency Health Unit is in Gaza, supporting a partner field hospital in Al-Mawasi. Save the Children is providing maternal and newborn care in the maternity unit and paediatric inpatient and outpatient services in the hospitals.
The Emergency Health Unit is also running the Primary Health Clinic in Deir Al-Balah, providing health services such as the management of communicable and non-communicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health services, ante-natal care and management of urgent deliveries, basic trauma care and wound dressing, and mental health and psychosocial support. They also provide malnutrition screening and treatment for children and have established a mother and baby area where women can breastfeed in private and receive information on feeding infants and young children in emergencies.
Key project outcomes.
As of 5 June 2024, Save the children has reached over 799,010 people, including over 396,181 children. This includes 779,376 people (385,415 children) in the Gaza Strip and 19,634 people (10,766 children) in the West Bank.
The Save the Children Gaza Appeal, to which Footprints Network and others have donated, has achieved the following:
- We have distributed:
- 274,767 water bottles
- 112,070 personal hygiene kits
- 7267 dignity kits
- 3,948 winter shelter kits
- 104,567 food baskets
- 4,400 learning kits
- 14,548 recreational kits
- 1,811 baby kits
- 2,280 blankets
- 11,269 non-food items
- 2,858 vouchers
- 40,000 family hygiene kits.
- We have reached more than 15.8k families (households) with cash assistance.
- At the partner field hospital in Al-Mawasi, since establishing the maternity unit in April, Save the Children has provided more than 900 consultations – including ante-natal and post-natal care for women – and supported the delivery of 46 babies. Through the paediatric inpatient and outpatient services, we have treated children with severe blast injuries and burns, conducted surgeries, resuscitated critically ill patients, provided post-operative care for children and on-the-job training for more than 160 healthcare workers.
- We have treated more than 4,500 patients at the Primary Health Clinic in Al-Balah since it opened in May.
Community involvement
We currently work with 15 partner organisations (11 in Gaza, 5 in the West Bank) who provide support to children and families impacted by the conflict. Their local knowledge is vital in our response as they have a deep understanding of the contextual challenges and specific needs of children in the region. Their involvement includes our local partners distributing supplies to shelters and households; local staff to keep 20 shelters clean in the middle governate of Gaza; and the partner field hospital in Al-Mawasi.
What’s next?
Our work in occupied Palestinian Territory continues, as the region faces huge and growing humanitarian need. Ongoing violence, forced displacement and restricted aid access means 96% of the population face acute food shortages, with more than 495,000 people facing starvation.
Save the Children stands ready to scale up our support to children when access becomes available. An immediate and definitive ceasefire and unfettered humanitarian access is the only way to save lives in Gaza and avoid famine.
Our upcoming aims include:
- Opening 10 more child-friendly spaces providing mental health and psychosocial support for children, in addition to the current five.
- Establishing seven Nutrition Points to screen children for malnutrition and provide infant and young child feeding support to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, in addition to the current six.
- Continued distribution of essential including water, hygiene kits, food and basic shelter kits.
Project Background
Since violence escalated in Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) on 7 October 2023, at least 2,000 children have reportedly been killed in Gaza. Homes, hospitals, and schools have been destroyed.
Children have played no part in this conflict, yet they are the worst affected. “The constant sounds of bombing every moment and thinking how we will get food… Words cannot describe what we are living,” said Lina*, 16, daughter of a Save the Children staff member in Gaza.
In Gaza, an estimated 80% of the population was already reliant on international aid to survive and access basic services before the current escalation, with 1 in 3 people across the region facing severe levels of food insecurity. Now those needs have intensified, with families struggling to get enough food, water, fuel, and medical care.
The knock-on impacts of this escalation will be felt across the region, with more families forced to flee their homes and seek safety. Children’s lives and futures are at risk – we urgently need your support to protect them.
Project Overview
Save the Children has been working since 1953 to protect the rights of children in Gaza and the West Bank, with teams present in both areas. Together with our partners, we’re calling for an end to the violence and for urgent humanitarian access.
Our teams across the region are ready to provide lifesaving support as soon as it’s possible to do so. Our response will include:
- Providing urgent food, water, and winterisation kits (with warm clothes and blankets) to families
- Setting up safe spaces for children and providing mental health and psychosocial
- support for children and their caregivers
- Deploying our Emergency Health Unit and procuring essential medical equipment
- Providing emergency e-vouchers and multi-purpose cash transfers
- Setting up temporary learning spaces and repairing damaged schools
- Pre-positioning emergency supplies and being ready to respond to the needs of children and families who have been displaced into the neighbouring countries of Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. This support will include providing clean water, essential hygiene items, emergency cash transfers, learning materials, and child protection support.
Project Outcomes
Children and families have access to the essentials they need to survive such as:
- Food
- Water
- Warm clothes and blankets
- Mental health and psychosocial support
- Medical equipment and support
What costs are covered?
- Procuring and distributing essential supplies such as food, water, medical equipment, educational resources, and facilitating cash transfers
- Mobilising teams and setting up support services for families arriving in neighbouring countries
- Setting up and running child friendly spaces for children
Partner and community involvement
Along with Save the Children staff, we will be providing support to affected children and families through 33 local partner organisations. The local knowledge of our staff and partners is vital in our response as they have a deep understanding of the contextual challenges and specific needs of children in the region.
How does this project fit into a larger strategy?
Save the Children is a leading international development organisation working to support children and young people experiencing disadvantage to reach their full potential. We work to achieve the rights of all children, but we put children who are experiencing the greatest disadvantage first in our own work.
Our mission and the base of all our work is that every child:
- Survives: No child dies from preventable causes before their fifth birthday
- Learns: All children learn from a quality basic education
- Is Protected: Violence against children is no longer tolerated
The work being done as part of this response is at the heart of everything Save the Children does, ensuring that innocent children are safe and have access to their basic human rights.