‘Unthinkable’ Already Unfolding in Gaza City, Affecting One Million – UNICEF

September 5, 2025 News
Israel continues to commit horrific massacres in Gaza. (Photo: Social media, via QNN)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The UNICEF official said malnutrition and famine are weakening children’s bodies as displacement strips them of shelter and care, and bombardments “threaten their every move.”

UNICEF warned on Thursday that the “unthinkable” has already begun in Gaza City, with Israel’s military offensive intensifying amid the famine and forced displacement affecting almost one million Palestinians.

“The world is sounding the alarm about what an intensified military offensive in Gaza City could bring – a catastrophe for the almost 1 million people who remain there,” Tess Ingram, UNICEF’s Communications Manager for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), said during a press briefing from Gaza. “This unthinkable is not looming – it is already here. The escalation is underway.”

She stressed, “Gaza City, the last refuge for families in the northern Gaza Strip, is fast becoming a place where childhood cannot survive. It is a city of fear, flight and funerals.”

‘Already Displaced, Displaced Again’

Ingram said that over nine days in Gaza City, she met families who had fled their homes in fear, “already displaced, now displaced again – arriving with nothing but the clothes on their backs.”

“I met children who were separated from their parents in that chaos. Mothers whose children have died of starvation. Mothers who fear their children will be next. I’ve spoken to kids in hospital beds, their small bodies shredded by shrapnel,” she added.

Only 44 of the 92 UNICEF-supported outpatient nutrition treatment centers in Gaza City are still functioning, depleting thousands of malnourished children of more than half of the lifelines they depend on to fight famine, according to Ingram.

“Hospitals in Gaza City are on their knees. Of the 11 hospitals partly functioning, only five still have neonatal intensive care units,” she stated.

Tessa pointed out that the 40 incubators between the hospitals are running at up to 200 per cent capacity meaning as many as 80 babies “are fighting for life in overcrowded machines, utterly dependent on generators and medical supplies that may run dry at any moment.”

‘Famine in a War Zone’

She said malnutrition and famine are weakening children’s bodies as displacement strips them of shelter and care, and bombardments “threaten their every move.”

“This is what famine in a war zone looks like and it was everywhere I looked in Gaza City,” the UNICEF official stated. “An hour in a nutrition clinic is enough to erase any questions of whether there is a famine – crowded waiting rooms, parents in tears, children fighting the double-punch of disease and malnutrition, mothers who cannot breastfeed, babies losing their vision, their hair and their strength to walk.”

‘Recurring Nightmare’

Ingram shared the “recurring nightmare” that mothers are experiencing with their malnourished children, due to Israel’s blockade of vital food and other aid.

She recounted meeting “Nesma” with her daughter, Jana, in a stabilization center in a Gaza City hospital that treats the most malnourished children.

“I first met Nesma and Jana in April 2024 when Jana was malnourished, for the first time, and our mission evacuated Jana in an ambulance from north to south Gaza for treatment,” she said.

At the time, she explained, the north was largely cut off from the south and children like Jana were suffering without sufficient food.

“Nesma told me the treatment in the south worked, Jana recovered and when the ceasefire earlier this year allowed families to return to north, they reunited with the rest of the family,” Ingram continued.

“Then the blockade on aid, hunger returned and this time, both of Nesma’s children deteriorated. Last month, 2-year-old Jouri died from malnutrition and Jana is barely hanging on,” she said.

Ingram stressed that the “horrors in Gaza have dragged so long that children like Jana are returning to emergency wards or relapsing just weeks after finishing treatment for malnutrition because of the ongoing lack of food, safe water and other essential supplies.”

Without immediate and increased access to food and nutrition treatments, “this recurring nightmare will deepen, and more children will starve. A fate that is entirely preventable,” Ingram stated.

Children Maimed ‘In Their Sleep’

The UNICEF official also highlighted Israel’s killing or maiming of children “in their sleep, almost every night.”

“On Monday night, it was Muna. She survived a strike that killed her mum, her 2-year-old brother and her 8-year-old sister. I met her on Tuesday in a Gaza City hospital after abdominal surgery on an explosive injury, and the amputation of her left leg,” Ingram said.

UNICEF, she said, urges Israel “to review its rules of engagement to ensure children are protected, as is required under International Humanitarian Law (IHL)” as well as to allow sufficient aid to enter Gaza and “and safe and consistent access for humanitarian personnel to deliver lifesaving assistance to families, wherever they are.”

Massacres in Gaza City as Israel Pushes Plan to Occupy and Displace

Ingram also called on the international community, “especially states and stakeholders with influence to use their leverage to end this now.”

“Because the cost of inaction will be measured in the lives of children buried in rubble, wasted by hunger, and silenced before they ever had a chance to speak. The unthinkable in Gaza City has already begun,” she stressed.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, a total of 376 Palestinians have died of famine and malnutrition, including 134 children, since October 2023.

Ongoing Genocide

Since reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, Israel has continued its bloody aerial bombardment across the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding thousands of Palestinians.

Starting on October 7, 2023, the Israeli military, with American support, launched a genocidal war against the people of Gaza. This campaign has so far resulted in the deaths of more than 64,000 Palestinians, with more than 161,500 wounded. The vast majority of the population has been displaced, and the destruction of infrastructure is unprecedented since World War II. Thousands of people are still missing.

How the UN Can Act Decisively to End Genocide in Gaza: Turning ICJ Rulings into Action

In addition to the military assault, the Israeli blockade has caused a man-made famine, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians—mostly children—with hundreds of thousands more at risk.

Despite widespread international condemnation, little has been done to hold Israel accountable. The nation is currently under investigation for genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

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