Israel’s genocide in Gaza is a genocide of children. Prior to last October, nearly half the population of Gaza were children. The official death toll, now regarded by many to be a severe undercount, accounts for more than 15,000 children killed by Israeli forces in the past eight months. For the majority of children who have survived, life will never be the same. Displacement, martyrdom of family members, and the exigencies of daily survival have placed a tremendous burden on these children’s shoulders. The Real News reports from Gaza.
Videographer: Ruwaida Amer
Producer: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt
Video Editor: Leo Erhardt
Transcript
Narrator:
“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.” These words stated by UNICEF spokesperson James Elder on October 31st, 2023.
Since then around 15,000 children have lost their lives, more than the number of children killed in conflicts in the entire world in the past four years put together. Now, mass starvation is set to replace bombs as the deadliest threat to Gaza’s children.
For those who have survived, it’s hard to imagine how they will remain children.
Child:
They killed my mum and dad in front of me. My only friend who used to play with me died.
Narrator:
In the makeshift refugee camps in the South of Gaza, 10 year old Shams evacuated her home under shelling and is now living in a tent with her family.
Shams:
We kids are not living in safety, we could die and also, haven’t lived a nice life. When I walk down the street they bomb and I get scared.
The bathroom is far, so if I need to go I wake mum or dad to take me because the sounds of planes and drones are really loud, and there’s the sound of bombing from afar.
Narrator:
Shams’ dad Hossemmedin has had to watch his children go from worrying about school to worrying about drones.
Hossemmedin:
I evacuated with my children we left beneath air-strikes and destruction. We left and the situation was very very very dangerous. Honestly, I risked it because of my children, I wanted to protect my children.
I live in a residential tower, and the Israelis contacted us and said we need to evacuate. They didn’t even give us a chance for us to leave in peace.
On the contrary, we evacuated under destruction and bombs, and the dead and martyred were scattered on the street. I was holding my kids and hugging them and protecting them so they couldn’t see these scenes. Because they were scenes that as much as I say are beyond description.
Shams:
There’s no safety, when we’re walking it’s normal for them to bomb at any moment, and I get scared.
Narrator:
Shams isn’t only scared for her own safety, but the safety of her parents too.
Shams:
Because the Israelis are like this, they bomb in any place, to them it’s normal, and mom and dad sometimes they go out and I get scared for them. When they bomb somewhere, I get scared.
Narrator:
And becoming an orphan with no surviving parents is not an abstract fear—but a commonplace reality in Gaza today, that realistically could happen to any child.
Child:
What is your name?
Mohammad.
Mohammad, tell us, how has Ramadan been so far?
Ramadan has been. Ramadan has not been good to me. Because I’m alone. With no mother or father.
Why, where are your parents?
Martyred.
When?
On October 29.
How were they martyred?
My father sent me to get some Maggi from the store and they (Israel) bombed the whole neighborhood. The neighborhood was unrecognizable. So I went to the Indonesian hospital and found my parents in shrouds.
Hossemmedin:
The war stole everything from the children. Everything related to childhood. Everything related to humanity. I mean, children, what do they want? A child is innocent. What does a child want?
She’s always asking me about Leo. Leo is her cat. She says I miss him, I wanna go and see him. I miss my grandad, I miss playing with my friends. I miss school, studying and the teachers.
Shams:
The war took from me my friends. I used to play with them.
[Where are they?]
In Rafah
[They died?]
No. But I miss them so much.
Narrator:
Gaza’s children have been forced to grow up fast… videos show children talking, moving and expressing themselves in adult ways, on themes that not even grown adults should ever have to face.
Woman:
How do you see the war?
Girl:
It’s Ugly. From the start of the war, I became ugly too. I was beautiful, my face was bigger. I was beautiful. But we became ugly because of the corpses.
Anas:
They have humiliated us with the aid parachutes that they dropped into the Sea! We live in Tel Al Zaatar, they threw the aid into the sea so we came here like dogs! I came to get food for my younger siblings who are screaminging with hunger. I swear I didn’t get anything. I swear to God I didn’t get anything.
Hossemmedin:
Behavior has had to change. It’s out of their hands. And out of our hands. They were removed from their environment and forced into a new one. So in the end they have to adjust to this new place they were forced into—in tents and so on—so in the end the behavior changed, their mannerisms changed.
Reem:
Their mentality changed, their talking changed. A lot of things have changed. They are not like they used to be. They used to be normal , but with the fear they changed a lot.
Narrator:
Reem is another parent who, alongside millions of others, was forced to flee her home with her family and now lives in a tent in Rafah. Her son is 14 year old Abdallah.
Abdullah “Aboud”:
We’re scared, we’re scared to walk on the streets because there isn’t anywhere safe, in any place in the whole of the Gaza strip, there isn’t safety.
The bombing was really strong, they were bombing belts of fire on people and they were running, and dead people scattered on the ground, the situation was really hard.
When we hear the sound of bombs, we start shaking, our hearts stop. That’s it, we’re scared.
[What did the war take from you?]
What did it take from me?
My childhood. They stole my childhood from me. My life was lost. No learning, no studies, nothing: no opportunity.
I fear for my mum and dad in the war. Because suddenly missiles could fall and they’ll be killed. My aunt, my cousins, neighbors, the neighbors’ children, relatives, friends… so many…
[What happened to them?]
They were killed.
Narrator:
Despite it all, kids will be kids, and moments of joy, laughter and along with it hope, remain.
Abdullah “Aboud”:
In the morning we wake up, we wash our faces, brush our teeth… We get up and get food from the store, and come back.
Laughs
[Background: No Aboud, don’t laugh.]
Abdullah “Aboud”:
It ‘s her!
Reem:
No, he doesn’t brush his teeth!
Abdullah “Aboud”:
Laughs
Reem:
He makes me laugh! Stop making me laugh, enough. Stop it! [What are your dreams?]
Abdullah “Aboud”:
That suddenly the war ends. They have a ceasefire. Go to Gaza. That’s all I want. I don’t want anything else.
Shams:
God willing we will live in peace and God will protect us all. Allah grant patience to those whose families were killed or martyred and take revenge on the Israelis.
Shams [singing]:
We return, oh love,
We return,
Oh you, the flower of the poor, We return, oh love,
To love’s abode,
filled with the fire of love,
We return…
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
