The United Nations has reported that it estimates at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been unaccompanied or separated from their families nearly four months since the war began, AFP reports.
"Every single one of them has a heartbreaking story of loss and grief," said Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for UN children's agency UNICEF in the Palestinian territories.
"This figure corresponds to one percent of the entire displaced population - 1.7 million people," he said.
Every one of them "is a child coming to terms with a terrible new reality."
Crickx said tracking down who the children are is proving "extremely difficult" as they are sometimes brought to hospital where they may be injured or in shock, and "they just can't even say their names".
He said that during conflicts, it is common for distant relatives to care for children who have lost their parents.
In Gaza, however, "due to the sheer lack of food, water or shelter, these relatives are themselves in a difficult situation and are faced with the challenge of immediately caring for another child as they themselves struggle to care for their own children and family," he added.
UNICEF generally defines separated children as those who are without their parents, while unaccompanied children are those who are also without other relatives.
He said the war has seriously affected the mental health of children in Gaza.
"They present symptoms such as extremely high levels of constant anxiety, loss of appetite, they cannot sleep, they have emotional outbursts or panic every time they hear the bombing," he explained.
Before the conflict began, UNICEF estimated that more than 500,000 children in Gaza were in need of psychosocial support.
Now it estimates that "almost all children need" such help - more than a million children, Crickx said.
The Gaza war was sparked by the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians.
Militants also took about 250 hostages, and Israel says 132 of them remain in Gaza, including at least 27 believed to have been killed.
Following the attack, Israel launched a relentless military offensive that has killed at least 27,131 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.
"Children have nothing to do with this conflict. Yet they are suffering in a way no child should have to suffer," Crickx said.
"No child should be exposed to the violence we saw on October 7 - or the violence we have witnessed since then," he added.
He called for a ceasefire so that UNICEF can properly count children who are unaccompanied or separated, trace their relatives and provide psychiatric care. /BGNES
