UNICEF says nearly all Gaza's children require mental health support

UNICEF says an estimated 17,000 children in Gaza are unaccompanied or have been separated from their families during the conflict with Israel

Displaced Palestinian children, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, wait to collect water amid shortages, at a tent camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 1, 2024. REUTER

UNICEF said on Friday it estimated that 17,000 children in Gaza were unaccompanied or have been separated from their families during the conflict, and that nearly all children in the enclave were thought to require mental health support.

"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 already 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 1 million children."