GAZA STRIP — UNICEF Communication Specialist Salim Oweis described deteriorating humanitarian conditions for children in the Gaza Strip, citing rat infestations, acute water shortages, widespread disease, and a near-total collapse of medical services. He said children are suffering from respiratory infections, acute watery diarrhoea, and skin diseases, with more than half of all households reporting skin-related illnesses.

Oweis said families are sheltering in severely degraded conditions, often in buildings where sewage leaks through ceilings and rodents move freely through cracks and exposed pipes. He relayed accounts of parents unable to protect their children: Hind has not slept since her 4-year-old daughter Masa was bitten by a rat, and Amani tends daily to her 7-year-old daughter Lemar’s infected sores with minimal clean water, causing the child to scream in pain. Abdel Aleem and his family layered sandbags around their tent to block rats that “simply chew through it,” and he said stopping them is futile. Abdel Aleem, his infant son Ahmad, and his pregnant sister-in-law were all bitten by rats in recent weeks.

According to Oweis, people in Gaza are now crammed into roughly 40% of the territory’s remaining habitable space, living among rubble and accumulating solid waste. Families must choose between using their limited water for drinking, washing, or cooking. UNICEF aims to provide clean water to 1.5 million people monthly but faces major access challenges. The Al Mansoura water filling station—serving over 250,000 people—is now inaccessible after two UNICEF-contracted drivers were killed there last month. Critical supplies like water treatment chemicals, oil, and spare parts for infrastructure repair are not entering Gaza at required levels.

Oweis warned that without sufficient clean water and fuel to prepare nutritious meals, children who recover from illness quickly relapse into malnutrition, with lifelong consequences. Although famine conditions have been reversed, the number of malnourished and vulnerable children remains extremely high. No hospital in Gaza is fully functional, and increasing numbers of children require hospitalization they cannot access.

“The common thread in my conversations with parents is their heartbreak over no longer being able to protect their children’s health and safety,” Oweis said. He added that access to water, adequate food, and healthcare should never be conditional for any child and said, “That this is happening should be – to everyone – entirely unconscionable.” UNICEF is urging unfettered humanitarian access, removal of restrictions on essential water and sanitation supplies, and full compliance with international humanitarian law.