Nearly 300,000 children in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank found respite from violence and hardship through UNICEF-supported summer activities that offered opportunities to learn, play, reconnect with their peers and prepare for the new school year.
A break from daily hardship
Summer camp takes us away from the atmosphere of war and destruction all around us. Here, we can forget the difficult things for a while.
Tala loves playing football, one of the camp activities, because ‘it helps me release negative energy and fills me with positive energy’.
With support from the European Union and other donors, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank had the opportunity to play, build friendships and participate in structured activities as part of UNICEF-supported summer camps.
The Gaza Strip is still dangerous for children, despite the October 2025 ceasefire. Its landscape remains in ruins after nearly 3 years of heavy bombardment that destroyed schools, parks and other infrastructure used for youth activities and recreation.
‘At home, we often feel bored, but here we have fun and learn many new things’, says 11-year-old Noor, a summer camp participant. Noor’s home was destroyed in the bombing and her family remains displaced, like most families in Gaza.
Noor says she hopes to become a doctor to help others: ‘After my brother was injured during the war, he had difficulty speaking, and we could not find the medical care he needed.’
UNICEF’s support for the summer activities helped children imagine a future beyond the hardship of daily life. In the Gaza Strip, many children are tasked with fetching clean water or firewood to help meet their families’ basic needs, while adults struggle to make a living or find food.
Amid conflict, displacement, violence and disruption to education, the summer activities provided a safe and structured environment where children could:
- reconnect with learning
- spend time with their peers
- regain a sense of routine and normality
They offered more than a way to fill the school holidays. At a time when opportunities to play, learn and socialise remain extremely limited for many children, the activities supported their development and well-being by giving them the chance to simply be children again.
Helping children cope
More than 290,400 children participated in UNICEF-supported summer programmes across 400 schools, centres and communities. In the Gaza Strip, most of the activities were held in temporary shelters such as tents.
The activities included:
- practice in Arabic and mathematics
- recreational activities
- social and emotional learning
- activities that helped younger children prepare for Grade 1
UNICEF also supported the summer programme with 4,321 school-in-a-carton kits, 1,042 recreational kits and 867 early childhood development kits. It also provided water, paper supplies and professional development for teachers, counsellors and other education staff.
UNICEF provided
'The summer camp taught me many things. I learnt how to draw, make videos and use a camera. And the teachers encouraged us to learn whatever we wanted’, says Hadeel, 14, who aspires to become a poet.
The counselling sessions helped us cope with what we experienced during the war. They made us enjoy speaking, as though we had become journalists and public speakers. We learnt about empathy, respect, appreciation and the importance of using kind words with each another.
‘I love writing stories and poems inspired by my imagination’, says 14-year-old Hadeel. ‘I hope that every girl who is struggling academically will have the opportunity to learn.’
At a school in the West Bank town of Nablus, 10-year-old Rahaf says that the activities helped her develop her reading and writing skills.
And of course, the teacher played with us and did many activities and exercises. I loved her so much – she was very nice.
Children had the opportunity to paint and take part in fun science activities.
Humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip remain dire, with most of the population – 1.9 out of 2.1 million people – displaced and exposed to ongoing health and environmental risks. 91% of the children served by UNICEF’s summer activities were in the Gaza Strip. The remaining children took part in activities in vulnerable areas of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where displacement and violence are increasing.
