6 February 2025

The call to action below is issued by the “Arab Network for Early Childhood” (ANECD) and the “Palestinian Network for Early Childhood Development” (PNECD)

After 15 months of Israeli genocide against the people and children of the Gaza Strip, the first phase of the ceasefire agreement entered into action, followed by two phases of which the success depends on the success of the negotiations at that time. At ANECD, along with local, regional, and international partners, other humanitarian and human rights organizations, and United Nations institutions, we raised our voices loudly during the genocide demanding an end to the genocide, the starvation, and the forced displacement of Gaza people and children. We were among the first within the early childhood sector to highlight the massive Israeli violations of international and humanitarian laws and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in all its articles before the Israeli criminal file was transferred to international courts. Today, more than ever, we find ourselves concerned with following up on the needs of young children and those involved in the early childhood sector in Gaza and coordinating intervention mechanisms that ensure them a better future.

The extent of the destruction in Gaza is revealing that all the numbers and statistics presented in the issued reports are preliminary, and therefore the toll is increasing. During the genocide, Israel dropped around 100,000 tons of explosives on the heads of Gaza people and children. In order to understand the scale of the destruction, this number is equivalent to half the power of a U.S nuclear warhead updated today equivalent to 200,000 tons of explosives.

In terms of human losses, the genocide left behind in its preliminary outcome more than 175,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women (more than 17,000 child martyrs) and more than 11,000 missing. With the ceasefire and the movement of some relief workers, the number of victims has been successively rising, with an estimate of more than 10,000 under the rubble and thousands missing.

Furthermore, similarly to Lebanon, the Israeli occupation army continues to violate the truce in Gaza by targeting Palestinians and children with live ammunition leading to casualties. It is also reported that the occupation was mining houses and other infrastructure before the truce came into effect, which led to massive injuries.

The United Nations’ announcement of more aid flow to Gaza, especially food aid, and the expansion of the life-saving services scope is nothing but confirmation of the starvation policy practiced by the occupation during the genocide, as it prevented the entry of thousands of trucks halted at the checkpoints. This has led to severe cargo losses and damage.

We also must not ignore the massacres committed by the occupation and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which have worsened since the truce came into effect. This has led to dozens of martyrs, hundreds of detainees and wounded, including children, and thousands of displaced families, especially in the besieged Jenin camp where the occupation has prevented water and electricity from reaching the hospital, in Tulkarm camp, and in Ramallah.

The ceasefire in Gaza offers young children, their caregivers, mothers, nursing mothers, and all early childhood workers an outlet for the daily killing machine, but the journey to recovery and responding to the post-genocide requirements is long and arduous. In Gaza, more than 570,000 pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under the age of six, i.e. 25% of the population, are currently facing severe ECD challenges. This is a result of the collapse of healthcare, nutrition, education, and basic safety systems due to the genocide. The future of an entire generation is at risk if action is not taken in the necessary and required manner.

Current Situation and Key Challenges

• Thousands of missing persons, including children, are still under the rubble. According to experts, it will take more than a decade to remove the wreckage caused by the bombing, since it exceeds 42 million tons. According to official data, 48% of civil defense personnel were killed, injured, or arrested. There is also great difficulty for relief vehicles to pass due to roads destruction and leveling amounting to nearly 2,835,000 linear meters.
• According to official statistics on 21/1/2025, tens of thousands of families are still living in cold tents that lack the minimum necessities of life as a result of the destruction of 88% of the infrastructure, including homes, water and sewage networks, and others. These living conditions increase the risk of tens of thousands of children and infants contracting fatal diseases.
• Gaza is witnessing severe food crisis and food insecurity as a result of long months of starvation and the destruction of basic agricultural infrastructure. 50,000 children are suffering from severe malnutrition and tens of thousands of pregnant and lactating women are experiencing anemia.
• More than 17,000 children are separated from their families, according to UNICEF. Other sources put the number at 20,000, putting enormous pressure on alternative care systems that are already struggling.
• Gaza is experiencing the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history, according to the United Nations, with 10 children losing one or both legs every day. Most of the amputations could have been prevented. According to Save the Children, 15 children were injured every day throughout 2024 with disabilities that could last a lifetime.
• The medical and health sector has collapsed. More than half of Gaza hospitals are out of service, with hundreds of health care workers killed. With tens of thousands of wounded awaiting treatment abroad, Israel will allow only 300 people to leave Gaza each day via the Rafah crossing under the agreement.
• According to the Ministry of Education in Gaza, the education sector has been disrupted, with 95% of schools and educational facilities directly damaged. Over 15,000 school-age children have been killed or lost, over 50,000 injured, and hundreds of education workers have been killed.
• Over 70,000 children have been denied access to nurseries and kindergartens as around 500 kindergartens have been damaged.
• The mental health crisis in the Strip has worsened with all children in need of psychosocial support. Caregivers are also suffering from ongoing trauma that limits their ability to meet the needs of children in the absence of their own psychosocial support.

Accordingly, ANECD and its partners call for the following:

• The mobilization of global political support at different levels to exert effective pressure towards:
• Continuing the ceasefire and the success of its two coming phases.
• Consolidating the necessary efforts to adopt a unified approach to protecting children’s rights away from double standards and political agendas.
• Allowing international news agencies and media outlets to enter Gaza and ensuring their freedom of work to document the genocide against children and families after the occupation prevented this for 15 months.
• Increasing the number of injured that are allowed to leave Gaza to receive treatment abroad, especially children and mothers.
• Securing coverage of the cost of the initial direct losses of the genocide that exceeded 38 billion US dollars according to the Government Media Office (January 21, 2025).
• Opening all crossings and allowing the indispensable aid to enter the Gaza Strip, specifically to the North.
• Accelerating the process of removing rubble and explosive remnants of war.
• Raising the voice against the Knesset’s decision to stop the work of UNRWA, which would affect hundreds of thousands of children and families in Palestine and the diaspora.
• Concerted efforts by local, regional, and international actors and institutions in the early childhood development sector towards:
• Formulating a multi-dimensional intervention plan that works on the short and long-term levels and focuses on laying the foundations for sustainable recovery.
• Calling on stakeholders to join in order to mobilize resources that provide immediate relief and ensure early and long-term recovery for young children and caregivers in Gaza.
• Provision of hundreds of thousands of temporary tents and caravans suitable for free and immediate housing, especially to the devastated Gaza and North governorates, to which families have begun to return.
• Ensuring access to necessary health care for children, mothers, nursing mothers and pregnant women, including:
  • Facilitating the vaccination of hundreds of thousands of children.
  • Increasing the screening and treatment of malnourished children.
  • Intensifying disease surveillance efforts.
  • Treating widespread inflammations, infectious diseases, and skin diseases.
  • Providing multi-dimensional health follow-up for the patients and the wounded.
  • Providing hospitals with the necessary equipment.
• Meeting the adequate nutritional needs of young children, infants, pregnant women, and nursing mothers after months of deliberate starvation.
• Reuniting separated families and supporting alternative care systems in Gaza, with tens of thousands of children having lost their parents or all of their family members or living in alternative families.
• Providing psychosocial support to all children and helping them recover, especially the orphans, the wounded, and those who have had their limbs amputated, in addition to providing psychological support to parents and caregivers.
• Ensuring a safe return to education for young children with a compensation for the previous two school years.

The content of this call to action can only be achieved through the combined efforts of all of us, as the future of an entire generation is at stake, and the children of Gaza need us now more than ever.