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UNICEF is warning that children in Gaza are facing a mental health crisis due to the ongoing conflict and difficult conditions. UNICEF’s chief of Communication and Advocacy-State of Palestine, Jonathan Crickx, emphasized that a ceasefire is crucial to deliver much-needed mental health and psychosocial support at scale.
Crickx says kids in Gaza are really struggling mentally. They feel super anxious, lose their appetite, can’t sleep well, and get really upset because of the ongoing bombings. He shared heartbreaking stories, revealing that at least 17,000 children, around 1% of the displaced population in Gaza, are unaccompanied or separated, each with their own tale of loss and grief.
Before the fighting started, more than 500,000 kids in Gaza needed help with their mental health. Now, it’s believed that the number has gone up to over a million. UNICEF and its partners have provided support to 40,000 children and 10,000 caregivers, but Crickx stressed that it falls far short given the scale of the needs.
Richard Peeperkorn, from the World Health Organization in Palestine, said more people in Gaza are struggling with mental health issues. He stressed that we should prioritize mental health care, including emotional support, when regular health care becomes a priority. Currently, the WHO’s attention is primarily on addressing the large number of fatalities and injuries.
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Many Palestinians in Gaza are going to Rafah in the south, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says things are really tough there. The population in Rafah has gone up from 200,000 to over a million, and most people are living in makeshift homes or out in the open. Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for OCHA, called Rafah a “pressure cooker of despair,” expressing worry about things getting worse, like not having enough food, clean water, and protection.
