A Financial Times (FT) article written by Cairo-based correspondent Heba Saleh used a sourceless UN claim in an attempt to show the scale of child amputees in Gaza. The piece, “The Gazan amputees turning to football,” Aug. 30, includes the following:
…according to the World Health Organization, more than 5,000 [Gazans] have had one or more limbs amputated. At least 20 per cent are children. Gaza now has the highest rate of child amputees per capita in the world, the UN says.
The data on the total number of amputees as a result of the war, and the percentage of that total who are under 18, comes from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry (GHM). (These numbers can’t be verified because, unlike their periodically updated casualty numbers, it appears that they didn’t publish line-by-line or individual raw datasets, such as patient names, identification numbers, or individual hospital logs.)
However, United Nations agencies – and not the GHM – made the additional claim, largely in the summer and fall of 2025, that “Gaza now has the highest rate of child amputees per capita in the world.” But, the only source these agencies have cited is the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Yet, the IRC’s relevant press release – which UNRWA linked to in their statement about Gaza child amputees – published on Aug. 2025 doesn’t include a source of any kind.
We contacted the NGO and asked how they came to the conclusion that Gaza has the highest rate of child-amputees per capita in the world, but we haven’t received a reply.
Interestingly, the earliest iteration of this claim by a UN agency we could find was on Oct. 9, 2024, during an OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) briefing to the UN Security Council.
Their deputy director, Lisa Doughten, claimed that Gaza is “home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history” without citing a source. Interestingly, her wording is remarkably similar to a quote from the discredited, pro-Hamas British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah in an interview at The New Yorker on March 21, 2024.
The New Yorker, March 21, 2024
Abu Sittah didn’t cite a source for his allegation.
Additionally, The Lancet (a British medical journal) used nearly the same quote in an editorial on May 24, 2025, without an attribution for the quote or a source to back up the general conclusion.
Lancet editorial, May 24, 2025
Most recently, Save The Children used a variation of the Abu Sittah quote in an April 1, 2026 post on their website. Yet, the NGO similarly failed to attribute the quote, or provide a source.
Save The Children, April, 1, 2026
In fact, we were unable to find a comparative analysis of any kind that tracks the number of child amputees in conflict zones around the globe – yet alone one which encompasses hundreds of years of “modern history.” Nor were we able to identify anyone who has even alluded to the existence of such a report.
We’ll be contacting FT editors, asking that they either provide a source for their claim that “Gaza now has the highest rate of child amputees per capita in the world,” or retract the allegation.