UNICEF warned in early February 2026 that conditions in the Gaza Strip remain “extremely fragile and deadly” for children, reporting that at least 37 children had been killed since the start of the year. The agency’s spokesperson James Elder told journalists in Geneva that conditions continue to leave children constantly vulnerable — exposed to airstrikes and to the cascading consequences of destroyed infrastructure: collapsed healthcare, contaminated water, mass displacement, and the near-total elimination of schooling.

The January figure added to a pattern UNICEF had already documented in the months following the October 2025 ceasefire. The agency previously reported that more than 100 children were killed in Gaza during the three months after the ceasefire took effect. Elder noted the implication directly: the ceasefire has not made children safe.

Israeli forces have also demolished residential buildings in Gaza after issuing evacuation orders, deepening displacement and signaling to residents that no location — not evacuation zones, not displacement camps, not the areas outside declared Israeli operational boundaries — can be treated as safe. A fire inside a displacement tent in Deir al-Balah killed two children in the same reporting period. Three others, a woman and two children, were shot by Israeli forces near tents in Khan Yunis.

Around 90% of Gaza’s schools have been damaged or destroyed. More than 700,000 children have been deprived of regular education. The surviving school buildings function primarily as displacement shelters. UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for running those schools, has been formally banned by Israeli law from operating on Israeli territory and faces ongoing operational constraints across Gaza.

UNICEF has called on all parties to maintain the ceasefire and restore humanitarian access. The call is the same one the agency has been making for more than two years. The children being killed while those calls go unanswered do not have the option of waiting for the diplomatic process to catch up.