One of the beautiful facts about play in children’s lives is that children can play anywhere. Play is resilient; it is also a right of all children. The violation of children’s right to play – to be a child – is something that we in International Child Development Initiatives (ICDI) challenge as forcefully as we can, alongside the international partner organisations that we work with.
The opening lines from the poem by Mohammed Mousa from ‘Out of Gaza – New Palestinian Poetry’ edited by Atef Alshaer and Alan Morrison, powerfully express both the resilience of play and the horror of children’s lives in Gaza today.
‘Gaza children are being killed in cemeteries.
If you ask the kids, they won’t tell you
That they wanted to play amongst the dead.
They just thought they could play anywhere…’
The images of starving children being relayed from the manmade famine in Gaza is jolting and heartbreaking. They are too hungry to play and to learn. They are being stripped of their childhood. According to UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry published in June 2025, 73% of school buildings have been destroyed between 7 October 2023 and 25 February 2025 in Gaza. More than 658,000 children in Gaza have had no schooling for 20 months. According to Gazan Health Authorities, 15,613 children had been confirmed as killed.
The daily trauma being endured by those children who manage to survive in Gaza is severe and unrelenting — the loss of close family members and primary caregivers, constant forced displacement, relentless bombardment, hunger, disease, and injury. These are not isolated incidents; they are ongoing and compounding. The impact on Gaza’s children is almost certain to be long-term and profoundly damaging.
The numerous violations of international law and human rights in Gaza are obvious for all to see. As a child’s rights organisation we are particularly aware of the massive violations to children’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), including: the right to life, survival and development (Article 6).
The UNCRC calls on caregivers and all duty bearers to protect children. We cannot continue to ignore our duty. Every delay is causing another child to die and is ‘pressing Gaza down as it struggles for breath’ Jonathan Whittall, The Guardian, 3 August 2025.
Today, members of the Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) are returning early from their summer recess for an emergency debate on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Under the Genocide Convention, state parties are obligated to prevent or stop genocide within their capacity. The Dutch Advisory Committee on Public International Law (CAVV) has emphasised that states can be held accountable if they fail to take all measures within their power that could have contributed to the prevention of genocide.
As a Dutch-based NGO, ICDI—standing in solidarity with other child-focused international organisations such as UNICEF, Oxfam Novib, and Save the Children—urges the Dutch government to proactively and without delay:
- exert maximum pressure on all parties for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza;
- demand unconditional, sufficient, and safe access for humanitarian aid;
- support investigations into war crimes and genocide, and ensure the prosecution of those responsible;
- call for an end to the violence in the West Bank and the illegal occupation of Palestine; and
- maintain continuous pressure on the Israeli government to commit to a political solution based on equal rights for both Palestinians and Israelis.
In the meantime, we clutch at any opportunity to give light so that the children of Gaza don’t completely lose hope. We are heartened by efforts, such as of the Physics teacher, Ayda Elsayed Ahmed quoted in Sally Hayden’s article in today’s Irish Times. From her home in Dura in the occupied West Bank she has been offering online classes and psychological support to students in Gaza since last year. Ayda Elsayed Ahmed is now part of a more official programme offering “virtual schools” for Gazan students, supported by the Palestinian education ministry in Ramallah.
Daily life for all human beings in Gaza is a struggle for survival yet, the opportunity to learn gives some hope. According to Ahmed, her students ‘are very thirsty for education, they think this is their hope to overcome this miserable situation’.
Keep speaking out—Gaza’s children deserve more than survival; they deserve a future marked by safety, dignity, and hope.
Cover image: Dove of Peace by Max Kisman
