I've seen it with my own eyes: What’s happening in the Gaza Strip is a war on children — and I do not say that lightly. Children should not be carrying the catastrophic toll of this deadly war.

Instead of learning in school and playing with their friends, they are fleeing their homes and struggling to survive. On my recent visit to the Gaza Strip, I walked through hospitals where I saw children experiencing the unimaginable. I sat with a little boy who had fourth degree burns. While people on the ground need aid to come in, there are also many children whose injuries are so grave they need to be medically evacuated. Neither of these things are happening at the scale they need to be for children in Gaza.

The costs of war are compounding for children in Gaza and, as the conflict continues to mount, it threatens to exacerbate existing crises in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran and Iraq. See what’s at stake and how UNICEF is on the ground delivering humanitarian assistance and protection across the Middle East.

• Leading a mass polio vaccination campaign in Gaza that has already successfully vaccinated more than 500,000 children after the disease re-emerged this summer.
• Scaling the creation of safe spaces and support for displaced children and families in Lebanon, Syria and beyond.
• Pre-positioning supplies and delivering humanitarian relief like nutrition as malnutrition rises in places like Yemen, where nearly half of all children under the age of 5 suffer from stunting or chronic malnutrition.
• Providing mental health and psychosocial support and other child protection services to the millions of children who are facing traumatic experiences.
• Advocating for an immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire that will end the suffering and protect the rights of all children affected by the war in Gaza.
• Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages, including two children who remain in captivity.