Gaza records highest number of child amputees globally: UNRWA
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), warned that Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita globally.
In a post published on the social media platform X on Wednesday, Lazzarini said that up to 4,000 child amputees have been recorded in Gaza since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal assault on the enclave on October 7, 2023.
“The toll on children and childhood is beyond just the physical injury and the spreading hunger. Children’s scars are deep and invisible; anxiety, nightmares, aggression, and fear,” he wrote.
“The longer this goes on, the more the children will be haunted by their ongoing and deepening traumas for generations to come,” head of the UN agency added, stressing that a ceasefire must be reached “If not for the sake of anyone else, then at least for children.”
Another heavy night in #Gaza with too many children reported killed or injured.#Gaza is now home to the highest number of child amputees per capita worldwide, estimated at up to 4,000 since the war began @RESCUEorg
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) September 24, 2025
The toll on children & childhood is beyond just the physical…
Speaking at a side-event at the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday, Lazzarini said that for millions of children around the world, September signals the return to school. It is a period for learning and play within a safe and supportive setting, but this is not the case in Gaza.
Since Israel's genocide began, “the children of Gaza have continued to spiral downward into the abyss of hell. Every day, for nearly two years, the equivalent of a classroom full of children has been killed,” he stated.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) reported last Wednesday that the worst-case scenario for Gaza’s children is unfolding across the enclave.
“In some areas, children share a single cucumber for the entire day, or stop seeking aid because they are too weak to walk.”
Starvation inflicts a devastating toll. The body weakens, the immune system collapses, and organs begin to fail. This is not ordinary hunger; it is a slow death, the IRC warned.
Children in Gaza are enduring severe malnutrition, and lives are being lost. Aid workers say parents are forced to divide a single piece of bread among several children, many of whom go to bed hungry night after night, the committee added.
More than 360 people, including 130 children, have died from hunger since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
As reported by the Gaza Health Ministry, 1.9 million individuals are experiencing malnutrition. Among them, at least 641,000 are facing the most extreme levels of famine, it added.
Meanwhile, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed nearly 65,419 people and injured 167,160 more, most of them children and women.
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