Children in Gaza mourn parents killed by Israeli shelling
By: Reuters
Laila al-Sultan, 7, believed to have lost one or both of her parents in the Gaza War, shouts for her father when she wakes up in the middle of the night. Her father was killed in the same Israeli airstrike that wounded her leg.
As their mother tries to make ends meet in the ruins of a destroyed enclave, she and her 4-year-old brother Khaled bounce around on the floor of the shanty they now dwell in among a tent city of homeless people, facing a life without a father.
“The house collapsed on us and Daddy went to heaven and he is very happy,” Laila said to Khaled, who was jumping up and down on her lap.
For the children of Gaza, the past three months of fighting have been terrible. Health officials in the besieged area have calculated that under-18-year-olds made up almost 40% of the confirmed dead, now estimated at 23,357.
The majority of survivors have experienced homelessness. Whole families are housed in a single room, in tents or shanties, in shelters located in schools, or packed into remaining houses. Gaza has a severely limited food supply, thus children are constantly hungry.
“Our first estimates put the number of orphans at thousands, but we are still unable to count them. The Palestinian Minister of Social Development in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Ahmed Majdalani, stated, “The numbers are high and the challenges are significant.”
Ahmed al-Saker, 13, was crying in another tent in Rafah, recalling his father who had been killed in an attack on their home, while he built a fire beneath a cooking pot. He wiped away his tears and added, “He used to sing to me at bedtime and hug me and hold me before I slept.”
“My mother cannot bear all these worries and burdens and she can’t carry my injured brother on her own,” he stated.
Children in Gaza who lost a parent are particularly marked by fears for the future. They have already been forced to mature due to the conflict, and now they have to take on even more work in their difficult new life among the rubble.
