Several tens of thousands of children have been killed or injured since the start of the conflict. According to Unicef, Gazan miners are “disproportionately affected” by the fighting.
A 3 year old child “Amputee of the left arm and both legs”. Another “who received a sniper bullet in the chest”. A “little girl burned”. In a deep voice, Doctor Raphaël Pitti talks about the young patients he treated during a mission in the Gaza Strip at the end of January. The list listed by the French doctor seems endless. And for good reason: the children, who represent “around half of the Gazan population are disproportionately affected” by the war between Israel and Hamas, notes Salim Oweis, communications officer for the UNICEF regional office for the Middle East and North Africa.
In less than five months, the fighting has involved more than 30 000 dead in the Palestinian enclave, according to the report from the Gaza Ministry of Health established Thursday February 29. Some 40% of these victims are under 18 years old, according to local authorities. They also constitute the majority of the more than 70,000 wounded who have flooded Gaza’s hospitals since October 7. “Because they are smaller, children are particularly vulnerable to the blasts of explosive devices: their bodies are thrown more violently and furtherexplains Jason Lee, director of the NGO Save the Children in Palestine. Their bones are less strong, which increases the risk of long-term deformities.”
“Caregivers must make terrible choices”
Children are also more difficult to care for, while the health system collapses as the fighting continues. Only one operational hospital still has a pediatric surgery unit, specifies Aurélie Godard, anesthesiologist and medical referent for Médecins sans frontières (MSF). So minors are taken care of “pretty much everywhere”with the means at hand. “The caregivers must make terrible choices, like deciding which baby gets to use the hospital’s only ventilator.”, deplores Jason Lee. Other doctors have reported to Save the Children the case of “little girl burned on 40% of her body”, “without morphine” to administer to soothe the pain. Antibiotics are also lacking. To limit the risk of infection, many children must therefore have amputations.
“Saving a leg destroyed by a bombing exposes the patient to the risk of gangrene. In Gaza, caregivers must choose between saving a life or saving a limb.”
Aurélie Godard, anesthesiologistat franceinfo
More than a thousand children have had one or both legs amputated since the start of the conflict, Save the Children estimates. “We are talking about young people who need rehabilitation, to change their prosthesis regularly as they grow”, specifies Jonathan Fowler, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). Care “impossible to provide” in the middle of a conflict which is devastating the Gaza Strip, where humanitarian aid is only trickling in.
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An acronym sums up the suffering of these young patients: WCNSF. For “injured child, with no surviving family”. Unicef estimates that there are more than 17,000 unaccompanied minors in Gaza, orphans or separated from their families. “The hardest thing is when a child asks us where their parents are and they are already dead”, a doctor at al-Aqsa hospital told Al-Jazeera in December. He says he was unable to tell a 9-year-old girl, who had survived a brain hemorrhage and multiple fractures, that she was an orphan. “She believes her family is doing well, but we can’t tell her the truth, because her treatment has to go well”he justifies.
“The perfect conditions for major epidemics”
Bombs and sniper fire are not the only danger for children in Gaza. The advance of the Israeli army towards the south of the Palestinian enclave has pushed nearly a million and a half people to take refuge in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where a compact crowd of displaced people occupies every space empty. This promiscuity, associated with the absence of sufficient drinking water and sanitary facilities, “creates the perfect conditions for major epidemics”worries Jason Lee. “Respiratory infections, skin diseases and meningitis are on the rise”specifies the head of the NGO Save the Children.
“Some 90% of children under 5 years old suffer from one or more infectious diseases. And 70% have had diarrhea in the last two weeks.”
Salim Oweis, communications officer at Unicefat franceinfo
Lack of drinking water can also kill young people, in whom diarrheal diseases risk causing fatal dehydration. “A member of our team told us that when he was in the north of the Gaza Strip, he bought [soda] on the black market, shook the bottle until there were no more bubbles and added powdered milk to feed her baby.”testifies Jason Lee.
The hundred or so humanitarian trucks that deliver starchy and canned foods every day are not enough to feed the population of Gaza. In the streets of Rafah, where Doctor Raphaël Pitti has visited several times, it is common to see children “ask for some money or food”. Because a packet of flour now sells for up to 130 euros, says Save the Children. “Our teams tell us about families who only received one biscuit per person for food, or who have not eaten anything for three days”details Jason Lee.
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According to the UN, 2.2 million inhabitants are today threatened with famine, out of the 2.3 million in the Gaza Strip. The situation is particularly dramatic in the north of the enclave, where the United Nations has suspended its food aid deliveries in the face of “total chaos” who reigns there. In this region, “15% of children under two years old are in a situation of acute malnutrition”assesses Unicef. “This can cause long-term after-effects, for example delays in growth or development cognitive”Salim Oweis is alarmed.
“In this ocean of misery, children continue to have fun”
The stress caused by lack of food, forced displacement and bombings is hitting young Gazans hard. Amal’s children are the sad example of this. One of his daughters “thinks all the time about death, injuries, bombs”, describes this displaced person contacted by The cross. Another one “crys every night” and her 8-year-old son, terrified by the sound of airstrikes, “can only fall asleep against” his mother.
“We are reporting sleep disturbances, nightmares, isolation, panic attacks or even psychotic disorders.”
Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokespersonat franceinfo
These symptoms existed before the war. In 2022, a Save the Children report revealed that four out of five children in Gaza felt a permanent state of fear, sadness or anxiety. “There was already a mental health crisis due to Israel’s 15-year blockade of the territoryinsists Jason Lee. All the events that have occurred since October 7 are added to this.”
Humanitarians who were able to enter the Gaza Strip describe children almost accustomed to war. “Some people laugh when they see us scanning the sky with a worried lookremembers Aurélie Godard. IThey say: ‘It’s going to boom,’ because they saw hundreds, probably thousands of bombs and rockets.”
“No child in Gaza will have grown up without hearing airstrikes, without seeing injuries, deaths, carnage. There is nowhere to escape the war.”
Aurélie Godard, medical referent for MSFat franceinfo
The anesthetist was, however, able to observe some “moments of humanity” during his mission. “In this ocean of misery, children continue to have fun with kites made from pieces of trash bags”, smiles Aurélie Godard. In hospitals too, little ones play in the corridors crowded with displaced people and patients. “They open the care trolleys and take out gloves to make balloons”recalls Raphaël Pitti.
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The emergency doctor was “struck by the number of children who are there, to serve as our guides when we look for the operating room or the lab, or to watch the ambulances and the injured go by.” “They are so idle that it has become their daily life”notes Raphaël Pitti.
“What was a place of joy will be associated with a terrifying time”
Life before is just a distant memory. For almost five months, none of the 625,000 students in the Gaza Strip have been able to take classes. UNRWA schools have been transformed into emergency accommodation, accommodating tens of thousands of displaced people. “A child of around ten years old told us how he loved the journey to school: talking with his friends, jumping in puddles… Now, he lives in a classroom with his family”, relates Jonathan Fowler. For all these young people, “what was a place of joy will now be associated with a terrifying time in their lives.”.
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In the north, the Israeli army carried out “a methodical destruction of infrastructure”including “schools and universities”says Aurélie Godard. “The school system, which gave young Gazans the means for a better future, has been taken away from them”protests the MSF doctor. “Imagine: you are less than 15 years old, the war has torn your family from you and annihilated your childhood… How will these children grow up?”
“The world around them is a field of ruins. The impact of the war will follow them for the rest of their lives.”
Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokespersonat franceinfo
While the Israeli army threatens an offensive in Rafah, all the humanitarians interviewed by franceinfo are demanding “an immediate ceasefire” and a massive entry of aid into the Gaza Strip. “We need strong actions from the international community” to put pressure on Tel Aviv, judge Raphaël Pitti. “We cannot be complicit in what is happening, by leaving this population locked up in an open-air prison, in undignified living conditions, under the permanent stress of bombs.”he gets carried away. “If we allow this war to continue, we will deprive the children of Gaza of any ability to rebuild themselves.”