The features of the children of Gaza have changed a lot, their faces have become pale like the city in which they live, their psyche is destroyed like their homes blown up by

the Israeli army, their condition has become deplorable and tearful, and their empty stomachs barely find a drop of water or a crumb of bread.

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 Edited  by |ANNA sam

 

Humanity  section -  CJ journalist

 

Gaza Strip – October,26,2023

 

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In Gaza, children are very afraid of death and are afraid of the bombs dropped by Israeli warplanes, which have killed about two thousand children since the seventh of October.

According to the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights, the rate of children and infants who have fallen victim in the war waged by Israel on Gaza is unprecedented in the history of military operations, due to the reliance of the Tel Aviv army on the policy of destroying buildings and residential communities before warning individuals.

The director of the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory in the Palestinian Territories, Anas Al-Gergawi, says that 120 children are killed every day as a result of the continuous Israeli bombardment on the Gaza Strip, and every 15 minutes there is a victim of minors.

"We have noticed that Israel focuses its air strikes directly against civilian objects in Gaza, which causes terrible destruction and causes child casualties," he added, pointing out that this means no distinction between civilian and military objects and this violates the Fourth Geneva Agreement.

The large number of children is attributed to the fact that this group accounts for about half of the population of 2.3 million people, as one family in Gaza includes more than five children in its community structure.

The young people who are still alive are sad, scared, angry, depressed, with wounded hearts, and are experiencing record levels of fear and psychological trauma, according to the United Nations Children's agency "UNICEF".

Hunger is eating children's stomachs, as the little ones in Gaza eat only one meal a day, and the child Bara, who was displaced from the north of the Strip to the South, says that he dips cheese and thyme every day and once, and he does not find other food to eat and there is not enough bread.

Bara has changed a lot and he no longer pays any attention to games and football, and all he is looking for or thinking about is to survive without suffering an injury that causes him wounds, fractures or amputation of one of his limbs.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees acknowledges that this is true, as the director of UNRWA operations in Gaza, Thomas White, says, "the food supply situation is terrible and very limited, and food for children has become scarce, the little ones barely get a meal and this does not provide their bodies with the required nutritional values, the levels of lack of food for minors have reached 90 percent.

The tragedies of children in the Gaza Strip have varied, but the most prominent thing that psychiatrists monitor on the features of young people is the destruction of their mental health and the deterioration of their condition, because of the traumas they face and witness daily.

According to a report by"UNICEF", 91 percent of children reported sleep disturbances during the conflict, while 85 percent reported changes in appetite, 82 percent of them felt very angry, while 97 percent lost Security, 47 percent of the Young had a habit of biting nails because of fear and stress, 76 percent reported feeling constantly ill, and 80 percent feel emotional disorders.

"UNICEF confirms that one million children in Gaza face an unknown fate, especially those injured as a result of the raids, they suffer terrible burns, missile wounds and amputations, and yet they dream that the devastating Israeli war will end and that they will live in peace and have food and drink available to them without suffering.

The strangest thing that the mental health specialist in Gaza, Fadel Abu Hine, noticed is that a two-year-old girl talks about the bombing with every explosion, and realizes that it is dangerous, and rushes from her place with every raid, and asks her father to close her ears in an attempt to soften the sound of explosions, and the doctor follows up on that, "in psychology, a child under five is not consciously aware of what is going on around him, but in this case we noticed a development in the assimilation of fear in infants and this is alarming and dangerous".