"I just returned from a five-day mission to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and I speak to you with deep urgency and profound concern today.
"This was my fourth visit to Gaza since the war began after the horrors of October 7th, itself building on decades of an unresolved conflict. You see the images on the news, and you know what has happened, but it is still shocking when you are there.
"The marks of deep suffering and hunger were visible on the faces of families and children. Over 18,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war. That's an average of 28 children a day, the size of a classroom, gone. Children have lost loved ones, they are hungry and scared, and they are traumatised.
"Gaza now faces a grave risk of famine. This is something that has been building up, but we now have two indicators that have exceeded the famine threshold. One in three people in Gaza are going days without food, and the malnutrition indicator has exceeded the famine threshold, with global acute malnutrition now at over 16.5 per cent [in Gaza City]. Today, more than 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition.
"On Monday, when I was in Gaza, I met the families of the 10 children killed and 19 injured by an Israeli airstrike while they were queuing for food with their mothers and fathers at a nutrition clinic in Deir el-Balah that UNICEF supports. We met with Ahmed, who is 10 years old and his father. Ahmed was in line with his sister, 13-year-old Samah, that day. She died. There's a picture I saw of him furiously waving down a donkey cart to try to see if he could save her and get her to the hospital, but he was unable to. He is deeply traumatised and does not know what to do. This simply should not be happening. The children I met are not victims of a natural disaster. They are being starved, bombed, and displaced.
"At a stabilisation centre in Gaza City, I met acutely malnourished infants whose bodies were little more than skin and bone. Their mothers sat nearby, desperate and exhausted. One mother told me she no longer produces breastmilk - she herself is too hungry. UNICEF is doing everything we can to address the situation: supporting breastfeeding, providing infant formula, and treating children with severe acute malnutrition. But the needs are enormous after 22 months of war, two months of a blockade, which has now been eased, but is still having an impact, and the aid is not getting in fast enough or at the required scale as of yet.
"In the midst of all this, our staff in Gaza - most of whom have suffered devastating personal losses - continue to work day and night.
"UNICEF is delivering safe water - 2.4 million litres per day in northern Gaza, reaching 600,000 children. That's an average of 5-6 litres of water per day per person - better than it was, but still far below survival thresholds. We've rebuilt the cold chain for vaccines, you'll recall the polio campaign in February, and we continue to vaccinate children. We're providing psychosocial care to children who have been horrified by what they have gone through. We're keeping newborns alive, helping reunite separated families, both within the strip and in some cases internationally, and delivering infant formula to the most vulnerable babies but much more needs to be done.
"There has been some easing of humanitarian access after the pauses announced by Israel. We have over 1,500 trucks of life-saving supplies ready across corridors in Egypt, Jordan, Ashdod, and Turkey. Some have begun to move, and we have delivered in the last couple of days 33 trucks of life-saving infant formula, High Energy Biscuits and hygiene kits. But this is still a fraction of what is needed, and so a big part of the mission has been our advocacy and engagement with the Israeli authorities in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
"We pressed for a review of their military rules of engagement to protect civilians and children. Children should not be getting killed waiting in line at a nutrition centre or collecting water, and people should not be so desperate as to have to rush a convoy.
"We called for more humanitarian aid and commercial traffic to come in - moving closer towards 500 trucks a day - to stabilize the situation and reduce the desperation of the population and also the looting and, what we call self-distribution, when the population goes after a convoy, and also looting, when armed groups go afer it because the price of food is so high.
"In order to address that, we need to flood the strip with supplies using all channels and all gates. This is not going to be achieved through humanitarian aid alone, and so we also pushed for commercial goods to get into the strip - eggs, milk and other essential supplies that complement what the humanitarian community is bringing in.
"We pressed for 'dual-use' items and more fuel to be allowed in so that the water system can be repaired - pipes, fittings, generators. It is very hot in Gaza - 40 degrees -and water is in short supply, with the risk of disease outbreak looming everywhere.
"We will continue to advocate so that the humanitarian pauses do not lead to further displacement, pressing the population into an ever smaller area.
"It was a good exchange, and there has been some easing of access, and we need to see the full realisation of the measures announced and the issues I raised, in order to address the situation.
"I should also say that I visited the West Bank. There, too, children are under threat. So far this year, 39 Palestinian children have been killed. I visited a Bedouin community east of Ramallah, which was forcibly displaced due to violence.
"We also met with Israeli children impacted by the war. Children who have endured fear, loss, and displacement. Children don't start wars, but they are the ones impacted by the wars
"But today, I want to keep our focus on Gaza-because it is in Gaza where the suffering is most acute, and where children are dying at an unprecedented rate.
"We are at a crossroads. The choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die. We know what must be done and what can be done. The UN and NGOs that form the humanitarian community can address this, along with commercial traffic, if the measures are in place to allow access and eventually have enough goods in the Strip that some of the issues that are there with law and order abate.
"Funding is needed. UNICEF's appeal for Gaza is critically underfunded - only 30 per cent of health and nutrition needs are covered.
"We need to remember that humanitarian pauses are not a ceasefire. We hope that the parties can agree on a cease-fire and the return of all remaining hostages by Hamas and other armed groups. This has gone on for far too long. 22 months. I honestly never expected that we would be here 22 months into this war. What is happening on the ground is inhumane. What children need - children from all communities - is a sustained ceasefire and a political way forward.
"Thank you."
