“The missile fell into my mother’s lap.” Gaza’s orphans suffer wounds, hunger, and the loss of their families
A one-month-old baby girl was born in the midst of war in Gaza. She lay in an incubator and never knew the meaning of a parent’s embrace. She tasted with her first breath the bitterness of war and loneliness.
The baby was born by caesarean section after her mother, Hana, died in an Israeli air strike, and the mother did not live to name her daughter.
Nurse Warda Al-Awawda, who is taking care of the little girl at Al-Aqsa Hospital in the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, says: “We just call her Hana Abu Amsha’s daughter.”
In the chaos of the ongoing Israeli war, with almost entire families wiped out, medics and rescue workers often struggle to find caregivers for bereaved children. Al-Awawda told the BBC: “We lost contact with her family. “None of her relatives showed up and we don’t know what happened to her father.”
Injuries change children’s futures
The lives of children, who make up nearly half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, have been shattered by brutal war. Although Israel says it strives to avoid civilian casualties, including issuing evacuation orders, more than 11,500 children under the age of 18 have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials. More of them suffer injuries, many of which will change their lives.
The Palestine Endowment Organization estimates the number of children missing in the war so far at more than 10,000. It is difficult to obtain accurate numbers, but according to a recent report by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory, a non-profit human rights group, more than 24,000 children have lost one or both of their parents.
A Palestinian paramedic takes a child who was recovered from buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in Rafah (Archive – AP)
Although the number of Palestinian children who have lost one or both of their parents due to war conditions is not limited, a difficult fate awaits them given the weak capabilities of orphanages in Gaza.
“The missile fell into my mother’s lap.”
Ibrahim Abu Mus, only 10 years old, suffered serious injuries to his leg and abdomen when a missile hit his house. But his tears were for his deceased mother, grandfather and sister. “They kept telling me that they were being treated on the top floor of the hospital,” Ibrahim said while his father held his hand. But I discovered the truth when I saw pictures on my father’s phone. “I cried so much that it hurt everywhere.”
The Hussein family’s cousins used to play together, but now they sit near the sand graves where some of their relatives are buried near a school-turned-shelter in central Gaza. Each of them lost one or both parents.
Abed Hussein, who lives in the Bureij refugee camp, said: “The missile fell in my mother’s lap and her body was torn into pieces.” We were extracting her body parts from under the rubble of the house for several days.” He continues: “When they said that my brother, my uncle, and my entire family were killed, I felt as if my heart was bleeding with fire.”
A Palestinian carries the body of a child killed in Gaza in the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital (Archive – AP)
The war seems to have exhausted Abed, and he stays awake at night afraid of the sounds of Israeli bombing and feels lonely. He explains: “When my mother and father were alive, I used to sleep, but after they were killed, I couldn’t sleep anymore. “I was sleeping next to my father.”
The grandmother takes care of Abed and his surviving siblings, but daily life is very difficult. “There is no food or water,” he says. The boy added, “I suffer from stomach pain due to drinking sea water.”
“The image of my father’s body haunts me.”
Kenza Hussein’s father was killed while trying to bring flour to make bread. She is haunted by the image of his body, which was returned home to be buried after he was killed by a missile. She remembers saying, “He had no eyes, and his tongue was cut off.” She continues, “All we want is for the war to end.” “Everything is sad.”
Almost everyone in Gaza now depends on aid to obtain the basics of life. According to United Nations figures, about 1.7 million people have been displaced, many of whom were forced to move again and again in search of safety.
But the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says its greatest concern is the estimated 19,000 children who have been orphaned or ended up alone without an adult to care for them.
Children in Gaza carry a sticker above their chests reading “Unidentified.” Tess Ingram, UNICEF spokeswoman in Gaza, said on the organization’s website: “What is happening is unbelievable. There is not enough room for newborns. The situation is very miserable.”
“Many of these children were found under rubble or lost their parents in the bombing of their homes, and others were found at Israeli checkpoints, hospitals and in the streets,” says Jonathan Crick, head of communications for UNICEF Palestine.
“The young ones are often unable to say their names, and even the older ones are usually in a state of shock, so it can be very difficult to identify them and perhaps reunite them with any of their family members,” continues Krek from the city of Rafah in Gaza.
Even when it is possible to find relatives, they are not always in a good position to help care for bereaved children.
“Let’s keep in mind that they are also often in a very difficult situation,” Crick says. He added, “They may have their own children to take care of, and it may be difficult, if not impossible, for them to care for these children who are alone and separated from their families.”
Psychological support for all children
Since the start of the war, the local non-profit organization SOS, which works with UNICEF, said it has received 55 children, all of them under the age of ten. Additional specialized staff were employed in Rafah to provide psychological assistance.
An employee of the organization says that a four-year-old girl was left at a checkpoint and was admitted with selective mutism, an anxiety disorder that left her unable to talk about what happened to her and her family, but she is now making progress after being welcomed with gifts and playing with other children who… You live with them.
UNICEF believes that almost all children in Gaza now need mental health support. With the “day after” the war, in the event of a ceasefire, these children will face an unknown future, which they will struggle to overcome.
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2024-01-31 20:57:40
