CNN –
Before the war, Mohammed Hamouda and his wife Dina walked along the beaches of northern Gaza, where their three young children enjoyed swimming, eating ice cream and riding camels along the coast.
On other days, the family of five sat with relatives on the balcony overlooking the green garden of their home in Beit Lahia. “My children used to lead a simple life. “We used to go out on the weekends,” the displaced health worker told CNN. “They used to have a lot of fun.”
Now the laughter has been replaced by the sound of Israeli attacks raining down on the enclave.
“They are very scared. We have to be by their side all day long,” reflected Hamouda from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where they have fled. “They keep asking me when we’re going back home.”
But the family has no home to return to. They recently learned that their house in Beit Lahia was destroyed. Hamouda's youngest child, Kareem, 2, is too young to understand, but his eldest children, Ella, 6, and Sila, 4, were devastated by the loss and wouldn't stop crying. “I couldn’t find words to comfort her (Ella),” he said.
Mohammed Hamouda
Palestinian siblings Ella Mohammed Hamouda (left) and Sila Mohammed Hamouda (right) ride a camel on a beach in the northern Gaza Strip on October 6, 2023.
Of the 2.2 million people living in Gaza, about half are under 18 years old. Due to Israel's partial blockade, the life expectancy of Palestinians in Gaza was already a decade shorter than in Israel, with newborn, infant and maternal mortality rates more than three times higher, according to the World Bank. Since the start of the war, the lives of young people in the Strip have become even more fragile.
Almost five months after the start of the Israeli offensive, Palestinian children in Gaza are living with violence, homelessness, hunger and educational disruption. Some have become orphans, others suffer from fear that their parents could be killed by Israeli attacks. Days spent playing with friends or going to school were replaced by forced moves from one shelter to another with no hope of safety. Several parents and caregivers told CNN that they find it difficult to declare war on the children because they say they are psychologically terrorized by the relentless bombing.
Israel launched its military offensive in the Gaza Strip after the militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,200 people, including 36 children, and kidnapping more than 250 others.
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CNN relies on figures from the Gaza Health Ministry and UN agencies for data on deaths and injuries. CNN cannot independently confirm the figures due to the lack of international media access to Gaza.
Israeli attacks in Gaza have now reached a grim new milestone: more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Health Ministry. At least 8,000 of them are women and about 12,550 are children, the ministry added. According to CNN calculations based on Health Ministry figures, nearly 90 children have been killed every day in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the war began.
“I miss my room and my toys,” Ella told CNN in a voicemail. “I wish I could see school, see my friends and my teachers.
I am scared and afraid that the planes will bomb us, especially when my father goes to work.”
Ella Hamouda, 9, displaced in the southern Gaza Strip
The Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip has destroyed family homes, leveled entire neighborhoods and turned large parts of the territory into rubble. In recent weeks, the Israeli military has stepped up airstrikes in the central and northern Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground offensive in Rafah. Families like the Hamoudas fear that they have nowhere left to flee.
It is estimated that nearly 30% of Gazans have no home to return to, and more than 60% of housing units across the strip are either completely destroyed or partially damaged, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. in February.
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Ella dreams of the day she can return to the beach with her friends, siblings Amira, 8, Yehia, 10, and Mohamed, 6, Hamouda said.
He didn't have the heart to tell her that, Amira was killed in November along with her father Waseem El Ostaz and his wife Helal during a strike at their home in Beit Lahia. Hamouda felt he could only tell his daughter about the death of Amira's parents, who were close family friends.
“She cried a lot and was very sad… She stopped eating,” Hamouda said of Ella. “She asked me to bring these children here after the war was over and take them to the beach… to make it up to them because they lost their parents so that she could play a role in helping them and comforting them.”
Mohammed Hamouda
Ella Mohammed Hamouda (left) and her father Mohammed Hamouda (right) sit in a beach restaurant in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, on June 26, 2023.
According to Hamouda, both Yehia and Mohamed were burned to death in the attack. Yehia also suffered a fracture to her lower extremity. The two siblings were moved to a relative's house in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.
According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), many children have suffered life-changing injuries as a result of Israeli attacks. According to UNICEF, around 1,000 children have lost one or both legs between the start of the war and the end of November.
Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Palestinian children run to escape Israeli bombardment in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on November 6, 2023.
Health workers have previously told CNN that they are unable to provide life-saving treatment to Palestinians wounded in the war – including children and infants – because Israel's bombing and siege of Gaza hospitals has crippled the medical system. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claims Hamas uses hospitals for its military operations. Hamas denies using hospitals as a cover. CNN cannot independently verify any claims.
Eight-year-old Ayas, who had a disability and lived in an orphanage in Gaza City, was on his way to a hospital in Rafah when he died, said Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi, the orphanage's director.
His condition had worsened after the orphanage had to flee with all 40 young people in its care – most of them children and toddlers with disabilities – and take them to the south. Due to shortages, Ayas was unable to get the medication he needed. Without it, his muscles stiffened, his spasms and inflammation increased, making it difficult for him to eat or sleep, Al-Naizi said.
We hope that this war will end and the suffering of the children of Palestine will end. Ayas is just one child among thousands of children suffering here in Gaza, whose lives are at risk every day. They die from hunger, disease, fear or bombing.”
Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi, orphanage director, displaced in the southern Gaza Strip
UNICEF warned in January of a triple threat to children in Gaza – not just the threat of a raging war, but also malnutrition and disease. Israel's bombing and restrictions on aid imports into the Strip have significantly reduced food and water supplies, putting the entire population at risk of famine.
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In February, UNRWA, the main UN aid agency in Gaza, halted deliveries to northern Gaza after an Israeli attack on one of its convoys, further limiting aid. Soon after, the United Nations World Food Program also stopped deliveries, citing attacks.
One in six children under the age of two is estimated to be acutely malnourished in northern Gaza, according to an assessment by the Global Nutrition Cluster, co-led by WFP and UNICEF.
Ayas was displaced at least six times before his death, Al-Naizi said. According to the United Nations, at least 1.7 million people in the Gaza Strip have been forcibly displaced. Many of them – including around 610,000 children – were looking for According to Save the Children, they are finding refuge in cramped shelters in Rafah.
Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi
Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi (right) and Ayas (left) celebrate Eid at the orphanage in Gaza City on May 12, 2022.
Hamouda, the health worker, told CNN his family has been displaced three times since October 7. During his stay at a shelter in Rafah, his children became ill due to exposure to the cold winter weather and unsanitary conditions, he said.
According to Saeed Muhammad Al-Kahlot, a mental health specialist who was displaced in Rafah with his three children – Siwar, 15, Muhammad – forced relocation, even to the homes of relatives or acquaintances, leaves children with little exposure to the indignities of cramped living conditions Privacy Exposed , 9, and Saba, 7.
“Children do not sleep in their own beds, and since the house is not their home, they are not even allowed to play or eat so as not to disturb the host.” House,” he told CNN. “These symptoms appear in the child's questions: 'Are we going to stay here long?' Is this a place we can play? How do I relieve myself when there's always a lot going on in the bathroom?'”
Up to 17,000 children in Gaza are unaccompanied or separated from their parents, UNICEF said in February — about 1% of the total displaced population. Children whose parents were killed by Israeli bombings – or who were separated from their guardians – are forced to take on the role of parents to younger siblings.
“I also saw a child who is barely seven years old and was preparing milk for his little sister and changing her diaper because he had lost his mother,” Hamouda said.
Many children who have lost their parents are now taking on the role of parents to their other siblings.”
Mohammed Hamouda, father of three, displaced in the southern Gaza Strip
According to UNICEF, almost 20,000 babies were born in Gaza between October 7 and January 19, meaning many newborns are starting their lives in these terrible conditions.
Ella wore a blue pinstripe dress with a ruffled collar and carried her pink and purple backpack to preschool – where she played with her friend Aya.
“I want to be a pilot,” Ella said in a voice message to CNN. “When I came home (from preschool), my mom was always waiting for me at the window and smiling.”
But the war disrupted her first year of school – the building was bombed in November, Hamouda told CNN. “She (Ella) wonders whether her friend Aya is still alive or not. She wonders what happened to her school,” he said.
“She is very upset because she cannot read or write.”
Children in Gaza are expected to do this lose According to the United Nations, he must undergo at least a year of training because of the war. A recent damage assessment by UNICEF found that over 160 school buildings were directly affected. Agency field reports also found that nearly four-fifths of school buildings on the other side of the strip were damaged and at least 26 were destroyed.
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There is no safe place for more than 625,000 students in need of schooling, UNICEF added. As of January 30, one in 100 teachers and one in 130 students had been killed by Israeli attacks.
The number of children in need of psychological support has doubled since the start of the war to more than a million – almost all children in the Strip, according to UNICEF estimates.
Saeed Al-Kahlot
Saba, Al-Kahlot's daughter, on the ruins of her home in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, October 10, 2023.
Al-Kahlot, the Rafah-based mental health specialist, treats patients at a clinic affiliated with the Ministry of Health. He told CNN that children in Gaza showed symptoms such as “bedwetting and nightmares, separation anxiety, fear of death, avoidance of social situations” and “fear of leaving the house.”
“This situation we are living through has never happened in previous wars,” he added.
Loss is a harsh and traumatic human experience. In the psychological clinic, one of the fathers who suffered from a panic attack told me that he hugs his children every night before going to bed and is firmly convinced that this will be their last hug.
Saeed Muhammad Al-Kahlot, mental health specialist and father of three, displaced in southern Gaza
Palestinians told CNN They feel helpless because they cannot protect their children from the reality of war. “As a father, I am unable to help my children. I know what they need, but resources are very limited,” Hamouda said, adding that he desperately hopes to be able to evacuate Gaza with his family.
“There’s no safe place we can take them to play,” he reflected. “I'm afraid of losing their souls, and I'm afraid that they might get hurt or suffer a lifelong disability.
“I want my children to live like the children of the rest of the world.”