Some break stones, others sell cartons of juice or coffee: in war-torn Gaza, Palestinian children work to support their families in the territory where, according to the World Bank, “almost everyone” is now poor.
Every morning at seven o’clock, Ahmed, 12, goes out into the ruins of Khan Younès, in the south of the small territory that has been relentlessly bombarded by the Israeli army since the deadly Hamas attack on October 7.
“We gather debris from destroyed houses, then crush the stones and sell a bucket of gravel for one shekel,” or 25 euro cents, this little Gazan, his face tanned by the sun, his hands cut by the stones he lifts and his clothes covered in dust, told AFP.
His “clients,” he says, are grieving families who use the poor quality gravel to erect fragile steles above the graves of their loved ones, often buried in haste, at a time when the war has already claimed more than 40,000 lives, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry.
“At the end of the day, we each earned two or three shekels, which is not even enough for a packet of biscuits. There are so many things we dream of but can no longer afford,” he laments.
Injuries and malnutrition
In Gaza, one of the most populated territories in the world but also one of the poorest, the population is young: one in two inhabitants is a child. Under Israeli blockade for 17 years, with no economic and development prospects, child labor, unlike the rest of the world, has continued to increase in recent years.
Officially prohibited under Palestinian law for children under the age of 15, the employment of children in agriculture or construction already existed before the war.
From walking barefoot through the debris, my brother got his leg infected by shrapnel.
Today, with hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, more than 60% of buildings destroyed or damaged and no electricity, working is a challenge.
To survive, adults trying to find a place in the makeshift camps that are constantly moving according to the evacuation orders of the Israeli army, are mobilizing children with them.
Khamis, 16, and his younger brother, Sami, 13, roam the potholed streets and displacement camps selling cartons of juice.
“From walking barefoot through the debris, my brother got an infected leg from a piece of shrapnel,” says the eldest.
“He had a fever, spots all over and we have no medicine to treat him,” he continues, while aid workers continue to sound the alarm about the health system, which was faltering before the war and is now unable to cope with the swarms of wounded, epidemics and malnutrition among children.
According to aid agencies, severe child malnutrition has increased by 300 percent in northern Gaza and 150 percent in the south. They also point out that 41 percent of families are now caring for one or more children who are not their own.
“Getting my life back”
In Khamis and Sami’s family, everyone works. They managed to afford a cart and its donkey when they first fled their home, for 300 shekels (75 euros). Then they had to leave again with the tent they had managed to get, this time for 400 shekels.
After these trips, seven others followed, the tent was lost and today the family struggles to afford “a kilo of tomatoes at 25 shekels”, or more than six euros, Khamis assures.
Moatassem, for his part, says he sometimes manages to earn “30 shekels a day” selling coffee and dried fruit from cardboard boxes on the side of the road.
“I spend hours in the sun to collect this money and we spend it in a minute,” says the 13-year-old from Gaza.
“And some days I only earn 10 shekels even though I shout all day to attract customers,” he continues, a drop in the ocean of spending in Gaza where the price of gas canisters has increased by 500% and that of gasoline by 1,000%.
In these conditions, “we only think about our basic needs, we have forgotten what leisure is, spending for pleasure,” he says.
“I would like to go home and get my life back. Before, we could easily find water to drink.”