Orphaned, Starving, and Homeless: 40,000 Children in Gaza Endure Endless Pain
Over 40,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both parents amid ongoing Israeli aggression, with many now facing severe psychological trauma and living in dire humanitarian conditions.
Palestine, PUREWILAYAH.COM - Among all his family members, Yazan now lives with his grandmother and uncle in one of the displacement camps in Al-Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, after surviving a massacre that led to the martyrdom of his father, mother, and two brothers.
His grandmother and uncle are trying to help him forget what happened to his family by encouraging him to play with other children between the tents, in an attempt to ease the weight of painful memories that sometimes overwhelm him—especially when children ask him about his mother and father.
His grandmother, Ramziya Tutah, recounts the moment she received the news of her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren being killed in the attack that took place as they tried to seek shelter in the courtyard of the Baptist Hospital.
She said, “At first, we tried calling my daughter’s husband, but he didn’t answer. That’s when we knew the devastating truth. Everyone had been killed. I couldn’t even recognize them at the hospital because they were torn to pieces.”
In a statement to UN News, the grandmother added that despite the deep sorrow, there was a glimmer of hope: “One of my sons told me that Yazan, my daughter’s son, was still alive… We took him and began his treatment at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. But after a month of treatment, the Israeli army stormed the hospital, and we were forced to evacuate, so we fled to Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza.”
She continues, “I try to make him forget what happened to his family by bringing him toys and offering him sweets. But the truth is harsh… Yazan is the only survivor, and I try to create a new world for him, one filled with play and laughter, so he can move past all that he lost.”
Osama Never Saw His Parents
As for the child Osama Al-Qarnawi, just one year old, he became an orphan shortly after birth. His mother, who gave birth to him in June, was martyred during a deadly airstrike that targeted a school in Deir al-Balah which was sheltering displaced civilians.
Two months earlier, his father had also been martyred in a separate bombing of their home in Al-Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza. One of Osama’s surviving aunts found him and decided to adopt and raise him along with her own children. She told the site: “I promised myself that I would raise Osama exactly like my own children.”
A Life of Hardship
In addition to their psychological suffering, children in Gaza are enduring extremely harsh living conditions due to the lack of water, food, and medicine.
About 1.9 million people—more than half of them children—are living in miserable conditions inside the camps, where their daily hardship only worsens as the war continues.
The children of the Gaza Strip continue to suffer from the ongoing aggression since October 2023.
The Israeli occupation has forced millions of them and their families into continuous displacement without access to food, clean drinking water, or healthcare.
Moreover, there is no shelter to protect them from the cold of winter or the heat of summer. They endure all this in worn-out tents, which has led to the death of some from hypothermia. On top of that, thousands of children have lost their family members and now live without any guardian.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children have lost their families in the ongoing war in Gaza. According to United Nations data, the number of children who have been separated from their families in Gaza is estimated at more than 17,000.
40,000 Orphans
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that more than 40,000 children have lost one or both parents in just one year. In addition to their psychological trauma, they also suffer from severe shortages of water, food, and medicine.
Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said in a statement last Tuesday: “The occupation is exterminating the Palestinian people by depriving Gaza’s children of water and food, and by denying a million children access to life-saving aid.”
Dr. Al-Bursh added that over 40,000 children in the Gaza Strip have become orphans, and 100 children died while waiting for the border crossing to open. He emphasized that more children are being lost due to the indirect consequences of the war—such as lack of medical treatment—than from direct Israeli fire.
According to the United Nations, between children aged 6 to 59 months, 60,000 cases of acute malnutrition are expected to occur from September 2024 to August 2025, including 12,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition.
Orphans Who Also Provide
Beyond the tragedy of losing their parents, many children who have been orphaned have also become responsible for providing for their younger siblings.
Experts stress that this crisis cannot be solved through temporary relief, and have proposed the establishment of a dedicated fund for orphans to help secure their essential needs.
Officials in the Strip confirm that many Palestinian families have stepped in to care for these orphans, who are suffering from extreme psychological trauma due to losing their families and their continuous exposure to the horrors of war. Symptoms include involuntary urination, seizures, aggressive behavior, and heightened nervousness.
A New Generation
According to a shocking study conducted by the Community Training Center for Crisis Management in Gaza, 96% of children in Gaza feel that their death is imminent, while 49% have expressed a desire to die.
This grim reality has made 2024 and 2025 the worst years ever for children affected by conflict in UNICEF’s recorded history—whether in terms of the number of affected children or the scale of impact on their lives. In June 2024, the United Nations added the Israeli army to the “List of Shame” of perpetrators of violations against children.
These children who survived the brutal Israeli war machine have become a new generation of Palestinian orphans. With the only four orphanages in Gaza now serving as shelters for displaced families, orphaned children have been left without care, or are living with other families in overcrowded, unstable conditions. (PW)
Source: Palinfo