AMMAN, 27 March 2024 - Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah met on Wednesday with the CEO of Save the Children International Inger Ashing, who briefed her on the catastrophic conditions of children in Gaza, where civilians are mere weeks away from famine.  

During the meeting, held at Her Majesty’s offices in Amman, Ms. Ashing explained that the situation in Gaza is unlike anything Save the Children International has ever witnessed, and that children are dying from starvation and disease at the highest pace since records began.

The meeting, also attended by Save the Children’s Executive Strategic and Policy Adviser Anita Bay Bundegaard,  included a discussion on means to alleviate the destructive impact of the war on the lives of Gazan children. Her Majesty and Save the Children also underscored the need for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, as well as increased aid access by opening additional aid entry points into the Gaza Strip. 

Save the Children International, the world’s largest independent child rights organisation, is calling for an immediate, definitive ceasefire, and the resumption of the entry of commercial goods to Gaza. It also urges the effective implementation of the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice, which ordered Israel to allow the unfettered flow of aid into Gaza last January. 

Gaza’s Ministry of Health says that about 13,450 children have been killed and thousands more injured in Gaza since bombardment began on 7 October last year.

Latest data shows that 1.1 million people across Gaza – or at least half of the population – are facing catastrophic food insecurity and resorting to eating hay and animal food, with experts on food insecurity and malnutrition warning of famine between now and May.

“More than one million children in Gaza are being bombed, maimed and starved. Their lives depend on international action being taken now and on a definitive ceasefire and immediate access for the life-saving supplies so desperately needed. No child should face this horror,” said Ms. Ashing.

Save the Children has been providing essential services and support to Palestinian children impacted by the ongoing conflict since 1953.