Children are always the first to suffer in any conflict – the stories coming out of Israel and the oPt is the stuff of nightmares. Children are paying the highest price for a conflict they have no part in. Help us meet the needs of children.

Ramallah, 23 October – At least 2,000 children have been killed in Gaza over the past 17 days, and a further 27 killed in the West Bank, with constant airstrikes reducing thousands of buildings across the Gaza Strip to piles of smoking rubble. A further 27 children were killed in Israel, according to Israeli media.

Thousands of homes, and dozens of playgrounds, schools, hospitals, churches and mosques have been damaged or destroyed in Gaza, with at least 4,600 children injured as reported by the Ministry of Health – some with excruciating burns, lost limbs and other horrific blast injuries, and unable to receive adequate care. The damage to health infrastructures and the lack of medical supplies are forcing doctors to make impossible choices like performing surgery on hospital floors, often without anesthesia, and hampering their ability to treat patients with life-changing injuries.

With the Gaza Strip a small, densely populated urban environment, relentless airstrikes are continuing to kill and injure children indiscriminately. Over 1 million children are trapped in the middle of the active conflict zone with no safe place to go and no route to safety.