Gaza now home to highest number of child amputees worldwide: UNRWA chief

Three-year-old Ahmed Humam Adwan, who had taken shelter with his family at Cairo School in the al-Rimal neighborhood after fleeing from Beit Hanoun, lost his left arm in an Israeli strike targeting the school in Gaza on August 20, 2025. [Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini – Anadolu Agency]

Gaza has become home to the highest number of child amputees per capita worldwide since the start of Israel’s war, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Wednesday, Anadolu reports.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that up to 4,000 amputations were reported in Gaza since October 2023.

“The toll on children and childhood is beyond just the physical injury and the spreading hunger. Children’s scars are deep and invisible: anxiety, nightmares, aggression, fear. Many are being forced into begging, looting or child labour: a lost childhood,” he added on US social media company X.

“The longer this goes on, the more the children will be haunted by their ongoing and deepening traumas for generations to come,” he said, calling for a ceasefire “at least for the sake of children.”

UN investigators recently concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, where more than 65,400 people have been killed since October 2023.

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