UNICEF Spokesperson Discusses War's Impact on Children Across the Middle East

Growing hunger in Gaza and the global pressure it has generated to end the war were at the heart of UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires's August 2025 appearance on ABC News Live. Pires addressed the deepening humanitarian crisis for children across the Middle East during the segment, which came one day after he spoke to Australia's News Breakfast directly from inside Gaza.

The statistics underpinning Pires's warning are stark. More than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. Since the ceasefire collapsed on March 18, an additional 1,309 children were reportedly killed and 3,738 injured. Nearly one million children have been repeatedly displaced over the course of the conflict, stripped of access to basic services throughout nearly two years of fighting.

Hunger has compounded the violence. With no aid allowed into the Gaza Strip since March 2, the longest period of aid blockage since the start of the war, food, safe water, shelter, and medical care became increasingly scarce. In May 2025 alone, 5,119 children between six months and five years of age were admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition, a nearly 50 percent increase from the 3,444 admitted in April. UNICEF projected that 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers would ultimately require urgent malnutrition treatment, up from an initial estimate of 60,000 children at the beginning of the year.

After a July famine finding in Gaza City, screenings showed 1 in 5 children were acutely malnourished as the military offensive there escalated. Famine was confirmed in Gaza City, where more than 10,000 children were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in the span of two months. UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder warned that more than 450,000 children in Gaza City were teetering on the edge of survival as both famine and deadly violence spread, and that UNICEF was warning of an impending catastrophe as the military operation expanded.

Pires and UNICEF have continued to call on all parties to the conflict to end the violence, restore full humanitarian access, and allow aid workers to reach children without threat of attack. For Gaza's youngest, the window for intervention is narrowing.