Scores of Palestinian children have more than one disability

A new report has found Palestinian children with disabilities face a "particularly dire situation" due to cultural stigma and the protracted conflict surrounding them.

Devastated infrastructure, a fractured economy and the overwhelming demand on service providers in the West Bank and Gaza has made disabled children and their families particularly vulnerable.

"They are very likely to be extremely poor, woefully under-supported to realise their rights to an appropriately tailored education and health care, have very few opportunities to participate in the social activities that are required for healthy development and poorly protected from abuse and exploitation," the report said.

Using databases of aid beneficiaries from NGOs and the Palestinian Ministry of Social Development, Unicef found 41.8 percent of disabled children had more than one disability.

It also found it was common for families - 41.4 percent of households surveyed - to have more than one member with a disability.

Palestinian children with disabilities effectively exist in a "no man's land"

Driven by high rates of cousin-marriage and pollution, and made worse by poor antenatal, delivery and newborn care, in most cases - 59.4 percent - the second person with a disability was another child.

Families in besieged Gaza, where access to healthcare and specialist services is hindered by Israel's blockade, were especially likely to have more than one disabled child, the report found.

These families were extremely likely to be poor, it said, with nearly 40 percent on monthly incomes that were about half of the extreme poverty line.

Children must do without the wheelchairs and hearing aids that they need, often because their families cannot make ends meet.

While the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, NGOs and the government provide disability services, the system is too fragmented, leaving families abandoned to their own devices seeking interventions for their children, the report found.

Palestinian children with disabilities effectively exist in a "no man's land", the report said.