UNICEF: Estimated 17,000 children in Gaza unaccompanied or separated from families

An estimated 17,000 children are unaccompanied or have been separated from their families in Gaza, according to UNICEF.

It says more than one million children in the territory also require mental health support and are displaying emotional outbursts and panic.

“They present symptoms like extremely high levels of persistent anxiety, loss of appetite. They can’t sleep, they have emotional outbursts or they panic every time they hear a bombing,” said Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF’S chief of communication for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 

“Before this war, UNICEF was considering that 500,000 children were already in need of mental health and psychosocial support in Gaza. 

“Today, we estimate that almost all children are in need of that support, and that’s more than one million children.” 

In a separate statement earlier today, the United Nations humanitarian office warned that Gaza’s most southern city, Rafah, is a “pressure cooker of despair” (see post at 11am).

More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are estimated to have fled to Rafah where they are sheltering from Israeli bombardment.

In the image below, displaced Palestinian children are pictured collecting water at a tent camp in Rafah.