THE excessive use of military power by Israeli forces as they continue their assault on Gaza has led to more than 14,500 children being killed, including hundreds of infants being so young that they were deprived of even a name.
More children have been killed by Israeli forces during this assault in six months than the number of children killed in four years of war around the world combined.
As we write this, 35,173 people in all have had their lives taken; at least 17,000 children in Gaza have been separated from their families; and approximately 1.93 million people are internally displaced, around half of them children.
Children who have not yet been killed by Israeli bullets, bombs, and shells are left without protection or basic necessities and continue to face unimaginable suffering.
Right now, no child in Gaza can be guaranteed even the fundamental right to life.
Israel's systematic targeting and destruction of hospitals has meant that there are currently no paediatric hospitals able to treat children in Gaza. This lack of adequate facilities and supplies for pre- and post-partum care has led to women giving birth by C-section without anaesthesia.
Desperate appeals for basic requirements like warm blankets and breastfeeding support go ignored. Since October last year, around 20,000 children have been born into war and misery, and around 52,000 mothers expect to give birth under these near-impossible circumstances.
According to a Unicef report assessing the situation in January, 90 per cent of children under two and 95 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women are in conditions of severe food poverty.
Around 90 per cent of children under five are affected by infectious diseases, 15.6 per cent of children under two in North Gaza were "acutely malnourished," and about three per cent suffered from "severe wasting".
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has declared that "children are being starved at the fastest rate the world has ever seen". Thirty people have already died of starvation, 24 of them children and elderly people.
At Sawa, an ECPAT International member and prominent child rights organisation, we are doing everything humanly possible to provide and protect one of the few remaining safe spaces for Palestinian children.
Sawa's role lies in giving children and caregivers a sanctuary, however small, to express their pains and alleviate their traumas so they may continue to survive. Despite our significant role in providing services to Palestinians, there is still helplessness in the wake and scale of this catastrophe — this Nakba — that has befallen our children.
We are making every effort to maintain our Helpline's crucial service's emergency operations while staffing it with enough qualified, well-trained, and supported counsellors for each shift.
Very few calls are received during the frequent disruptions to Gaza's communications and electricity supply, but those that can call do so, often during periods of extreme hardship.
When calls can come through, counsellors and doctors are inundated with calls from Gazans in need of immediate psycho-social support, assistance in obtaining essential resources for survival and UN cash transfer services to buy necessities, or advice on health and safety, like how to treat children suffering from infectious diseases, gastrointestinal illnesses from drinking contaminated water or dehydration and malnutrition.
All our counsellors require extensive training and capacity building, continual assistance, and frequent debriefing due to the nature of the harrowing calls.
Compounding mental health concerns, there are significant risks of sexual exploitation of children related to the ongoing armed conflict.
One escalating fear, as we specialise in sexual violence, is the impact of the war and degrading access to any essential services in exposing children to various forms of sexual violence, sexual exploitation, and abuse.
If girls manage to survive the war, famine and infectious diseases, early marriages may be yet another compounded risk as it may become one of the only opportunities available to access some form of protection or resources.
Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC) in Gaza are at an increased risk of a multitudes of types of violence, and their needs demand immediate attention, child-focused protection strategies and urgent intervention.
Both Sawa and ECPAT International's long-term vision goes beyond the horizon of immediate mental health support and crisis response to creating a sustainable environment where every child can grow up in peace, dignity, and security, liberated from occupation and free from the threat of violence and exploitation.
The suffering of Palestinian children is not inevitable and should not be normalised. It can and must end at once, and this requires immediate action from the international community to end this manufactured misery.
We join the international community in calling for an immediate ceasefire and urge world leaders to recognise and act on their responsibility to protect the rights and wellbeing of children everywhere.
* Ohaila Shomar is General Director, Sawa Organisation, a Palestinian NGO and Guillaume Landry, Executive Director, ECPAT International, a civil society organization