What will become of war-devastated Gaza’s orphaned children?

Special What will become of war-devastated Gaza’s orphaned children?
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Palestinian children attend a recreational summer 'Hope Camp' for orphaned children at the Jabalia Rehabilitation Society in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on July 27, 2024. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli strike on a school killed 30 people on July 27, after a days-long military operation further south left around 170 dead, according to emergency services. (AFP)
Special What will become of war-devastated Gaza’s orphaned children?
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Palestinian children attend a recreational summer 'Hope Camp' for orphaned children, which is supported by Americans for Palestinian Children, at the Jabalia Rehabilitation Society in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on July 27, 2024. (AFP)
Special What will become of war-devastated Gaza’s orphaned children?
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Palestinian children attend a recreational summer 'Hope Camp' for orphaned children, which is supported by Americans for Palestinian Children, at the Jabalia Rehabilitation Society in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on July 27, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 26 August 2024
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What will become of war-devastated Gaza’s orphaned children?

What will become of war-devastated Gaza’s orphaned children?
  • Unaccompanied minors face hunger and exploitation as aid agencies struggle to meet growing humanitarian needs
  • Orphaned children “are suffering from loneliness, emotional deprivation and a lack of care,” mental health specialists warn

LONDON: Terrorized, grieving, starved, and homeless, thousands of unaccompanied children in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip are enduring unimaginable horrors amid a dire humanitarian crisis — all without the care and protection of a parent or guardian.

UN Women estimated in April that Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which began on Oct. 7 in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, had left at least 19,000 children without one or both parents.




Baby boy Omar Al-Qadiri, who lost his family in the Israeli attack on the Et-Tabiin School in Gaza City, is treated at Kemal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on Aug. 19, 2024. (Anadolu via Getty Images)

The UK-based charity Oxfam has described the war in Gaza as “one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century,” with a death toll now in excess of 40,170 — among them at least 25,000 women and children, according to Gaza’s health authority.

In February, the UN children’s fund, UNICEF, declared the Gaza Strip “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.”

Children in Gaza have suffered life-changing injuries under Israel’s bombardment. Many lack access to medical care and suffer malnutrition, psychological distress, and infectious diseases, including polio, hepatitis A, and various skin conditions




BabyAsmaa Ajour, who lost her entire family in an Israeli army attack on Saraya crossroads, is treated for injuries at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, Gaza. (Anadolu via Getty Images)

UNICEF said in June that one in three children in Gaza is acutely malnourished, warning that at least 3,000 of them in the enclave’s south are at risk of dying from starvation.

“Horrific images continue to emerge from Gaza of children dying before their families’ eyes due to the continued lack of food, nutrition supplies, and the destruction of healthcare services,” Adele Khodr, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

She described the situation as a “senseless, man-made deprivation.”

Meanwhile, the New York-based monitor Human Rights Watch accused the Israeli government of starving civilians as a “method of warfare” — claims the Israeli government has denied.




Palestinian children queue at a water distribution point in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on August 25, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (AFP) 

These horrors are all the more terrifying for the thousands of children separated from their caregivers and forced to fend for themselves.

“Children who have lost or been separated from their families are facing unimaginable hardships as they struggle to survive without adult care,” Ahmad Baroudi, media manager for Save the Children’s office in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, told Arab News.

INNUMBERS

• 19,000+ Have lost one or both parents.

* 16,480+ Killed in the conflict since Oct. 7.

Sources: UN/MoH/Save the Children

“In many cases, older siblings or extended family members are stepping in to provide what little support they can, often in the most desperate conditions. However, these children are extremely vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and neglect, as well as the severe psychological trauma of being alone in such a hostile environment.”

Although humanitarian organizations “are working tirelessly to reach these children, offering emergency shelter, food, and psychosocial support,” Baroudi said the scale of need “far outstrips the resources available.

“The situation is dire, and without immediate and sustained intervention, the survival of these children remains at grave risk.”




Shereen al-Bozom, a Palestinian speech therapist who launched an initiative to treat children suffering from conflict-induced trauma and speech impediments, treats a child at her makeshift clinic in a classroom of the Fakhura school in Gaza Strip on Aug. 14, 2024. (AFP)

There are also many unaccompanied minors held in Israeli jails. The Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs reports that Israel has detained an unknown number of children from Gaza since Oct. 7, in addition to more than 650 arrested in the West Bank.

Released child detainees say they have been subjected to different methods of torture, including physical and sexual abuse, strip searches, and cruel treatment, like being made to stand in the heat for extended periods, according to Save the Children.

“Torture, cruel or inhuman treatment of children is strictly prohibited under international law,” the charity said in a July statement.

In June, the UN added Israel to its global list of states and armed groups involved in “the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated against children, attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons.”

Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad were also added to the list.




An injured child is seen at the 'Orphan City' camp established by a charity organization for Palestinian children who lost their entire families as a result of the Israeli army's attacks on July 09, 2024 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. (Anadolu via Getty Images)

The US-based International Rescue Committee said last week it was concerned that the actual number of unaccompanied minors in Gaza was far higher than current UN estimates.

A UN survey in April found that since Oct. 7, some 41 percent of families in Gaza had been caring for children who were not their own.

While nongovernmental organizations are providing critical services such as food distribution, healthcare, and psychosocial support to minors, Save the Children’s Baroudi said “the scale of the crisis means that many are left without the help they desperately need.

 

 

“The limited resources and barriers to access mean that only a fraction of the suffering can be alleviated at this time, leaving countless people, especially children, in life-threatening situations.”

International humanitarian and human rights organizations, along with several governments, have repeatedly called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages.

If a permanent ceasefire is reached soon, Baroudi believes “the future of the orphans who survive will depend on the international community’s commitment to long-term support and reconstruction efforts.

“These children will need comprehensive care that goes beyond immediate survival needs,” he said. “This includes safe and stable housing, continued access to education, healthcare, and mental health services to help them recover from the profound trauma they have endured.”

He added: “Efforts will need to be made to reunite them with any surviving family members or to place them in protective environments where they can receive the care and support they need to rebuild their lives.

“Without sustained international support, these orphans risk falling through the cracks, facing a lifetime of instability and vulnerability.”




Children look for salvageable items in the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israeli bombardment al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 24, 2024. (AFP)

Sahar Alhabaj, an occupational therapist at a UK mental health facility, said that unaccompanied and orphaned children in Gaza “are suffering from loneliness, emotional deprivation, and lack of care due to the absence of their families.”

These emotional challenges are aggravated by “their inability to understand deep concepts like death and comprehend the emotions associated with this concept, such as sadness and fear,” she told Arab News.

While those children may be “physically safe” once a permanent ceasefire is reached, Alhabaj said “they might suffer from long-term traumatic stress or personality disorders.”

Audrey McMahon, a child psychiatrist with Medecins Sans Frontieres, warned in June that the “entire population of children and teenagers in Gaza — more than 1 million people — will need mental health support” once the war ends.

After seeing firsthand the impact of the war on children, she told MSF: “In Palestine, there’s never a ‘post’ in post-traumatic stress syndrome. It’s ongoing trauma, it’s protracted trauma, it’s one war after the other.”

She added: “These children are human beings that have the same right to have a life lived in peace, to have access to good food, to grow healthy. They should have a right to have dreams and hope for the future.

“Children are born where they’re born, and it doesn’t make them belong to any type of group. They are just children.”
 

 


Shooting at Israeli bus in occupied West Bank wounds 4

Shooting at Israeli bus in occupied West Bank wounds 4
Updated 12 December 2024
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Shooting at Israeli bus in occupied West Bank wounds 4

Shooting at Israeli bus in occupied West Bank wounds 4

JERUSALEM: A gunman wounded four people including a 12-year-old when he opened fire Wednesday on an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military and medics reported.
The attack at around 11:30 p.m. (2130 GMT) happened south of Jerusalem, near Bethlehem at the so-called tunnels checkpoint.
Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom said its medics treated four people, including “a 12-year-old child in serious condition with gunshot wounds.”
The boy was “in a critical condition,” according to Hadassah hospital, west of Jerusalem.
The military said: “Israeli security forces are pursuing the terrorist, setting up roadblocks and encircling the area of Bethlehem.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 790 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.


US announces first Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon under ceasefire deal

US announces first Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon under ceasefire deal
Updated 12 December 2024
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US announces first Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon under ceasefire deal

US announces first Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon under ceasefire deal

WASHINGTON: Israeli forces conducted a first withdrawal from a town in south Lebanon and were replaced by the Lebanese military under a ceasefire deal, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wednesday.
The command’s leader General Erik Kurilla “was present at the implementation and monitoring headquarters today during the ongoing first Israeli Defense Forces withdrawal and Lebanese Armed Forces replacement in Al-Khiam, Lebanon as part of the (ceasefire) agreement,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
“This is an important first step in the implementation of a lasting cessation of hostilities and lays the foundation for continued progress,” the statement quoted Kurilla as saying.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that the stationing of troops “in the Khiam and Marjayoun areas today represents a fundamental step toward strengthening the army’s deployment in the south, in implementation of the ceasefire decision.”
“We salute the army’s efforts” toward establishing “stability in the south,” Mikati said in a post on X.
The Israeli military meanwhile said its 7th Brigade had “concluded their mission in Khiam in southern Lebanon.”
“In accordance with the ceasefire understandings and with the coordination of the United States, soldiers of the Lebanese Armed Forces are being deployed in the area together” with UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in the area, the Israeli statement said.
Israel stepped up its military campaign in south Lebanon in late September after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas, following the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
A ceasefire came into effect on November 27 and is generally holding, though both sides have accused the other of repeated violations.
As part of the agreement, the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers will deploy in southern Lebanon as the Israeli army withdraws over a period of 60 days.
Hezbollah is also meant to withdraw its forces north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle its military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.


Israeli airstrikes in Gaza hit Palestinians tasked with securing aid trucks

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza hit Palestinians tasked with securing aid trucks
Updated 12 December 2024
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Israeli airstrikes in Gaza hit Palestinians tasked with securing aid trucks

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza hit Palestinians tasked with securing aid trucks

CAIRO: At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in two Israeli airstrikes that targeted groups of Palestinians tasked with securing trucks bringing aid into the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said.
Medics said at least 30 people were wounded and with several in critical condition, they feared the death toll may rise in the first strike in the western area of Rafah City, in the south of the enclave.
In the nearby city of Khan Younis, another group of men tasked with security for aid shipments was hit by a separate Israeli airstrike that wounded several of them, medics said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Armed gangs have repeatedly hijacked aid trucks shortly after they roll into the enclave, prompting the Islamist Hamas group to form a task force to confront them. The Hamas-led forces have killed over two dozen members of the gangs in recent months, according to Hamas sources and medics.
In Gaza City, medics said at least six people were killed in an airstrike that hit a house, taking the death toll on Thursday to at least 14.
Hamas said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 700 police tasked with securing aid trucks in Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023.
Months of ceasefire efforts by Arab mediators, Egypt, and Qatar, backed by the United States, have failed to conclude a deal between the two warring sides.
On Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to demand an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the immediate release of all hostages.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry political weight, reflecting a global view on the war. The United States, Israel and seven other countries voted against the ceasefire resolution, while 13 countries abstained.
The war in the Palestinian enclave began after Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Hamas-run Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel’s military has leveled swaths of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing more than 44,800 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.


UN General Assembly calls for ‘unconditional’ ceasefire in Gaza

UN General Assembly calls for ‘unconditional’ ceasefire in Gaza
Updated 12 December 2024
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UN General Assembly calls for ‘unconditional’ ceasefire in Gaza

UN General Assembly calls for ‘unconditional’ ceasefire in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, a symbolic gesture rejected by the United States and Israel.
The resolution — adopted by a vote of 158-9, with 13 abstentions — urges “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire,” and “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” — wording similar to a text vetoed by Washington in the Security Council last month.
At that time, Washington used its veto power on the Council — as it has before — to protect its ally Israel, which has been at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
It has insisted on the idea of making a ceasefire conditional on the release of all hostages in Gaza, saying otherwise that Hamas has no incentive to free those in captivity.
Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood repeated that position Wednesday, saying it would be “shameful and wrong” to adopt the text.
Ahead of the vote, Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon said: “The resolutions before the assembly today are beyond logic. (...) The vote today is not a vote for compassion. It is a vote for complicity.”
The General Assembly often finds itself taking up measures that cannot get through the Security Council, which has been largely paralyzed on hot-button issues such as Gaza and Ukraine due to internal politics, and this time is no different.
The resolution, which is non-binding, demands “immediate access” to widespread humanitarian aid for the citizens of Gaza, especially in the besieged north of the territory.
Dozens of representatives of UN member states addressed the Assembly before the vote to offer their support to the Palestinians.
“Gaza doesn’t exist anymore. It is destroyed,” said Slovenia’s UN envoy Samuel Zbogar. “History is the harshest critic of inaction.”
That criticism was echoed by Algeria’s deputy UN ambassador Nacim Gaouaoui, who said: “The price of silence and failure in the face of the Palestinian tragedy is a very heavy price, and it will be heavier tomorrow.”
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. That count includes hostages who died or were killed while being held in Gaza.
Militants abducted 251 hostages, 96 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 44,805 people, a majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry that is considered reliable by the United Nations.
“Gaza today is the bleeding heart of Palestine,” Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said last week during the first day of debate in the Assembly’s special session on the issue.
“The images of our children burning in tents, with no food in their bellies and no hopes and no horizon for the future, and after having endured pain and loss for more than a year, should haunt the conscience of the world and prompt action to end this nightmare,” he said, calling for an end to the “impunity.”
The Gaza resolution calls on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to present “proposals on how the United Nations could help to advance accountability” by using existing mechanisms or creating new ones based on past experience.
The Assembly, for example, created an international mechanism to gather evidence of crimes committed in Syria starting from the outbreak of civil war in 2011.
A second resolution calling on Israel to respect the mandate of the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and allow it to continue its operations was passed Wednesday by a vote of 159-9 with 11 abstentions.
Israel has voted to ban the organization starting January 28, after accusing some UNRWA employees of taking part in Hamas’s devastating attack.


Militants ‘did not receive any international support to confront the Assad government,’ says HTS’ Al-Sharaa

Militants ‘did not receive any international support to confront the Assad government,’ says HTS’ Al-Sharaa
Updated 12 December 2024
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Militants ‘did not receive any international support to confront the Assad government,’ says HTS’ Al-Sharaa

Militants ‘did not receive any international support to confront the Assad government,’ says HTS’ Al-Sharaa
  • He says the weapons they fought with were manufactured locally
  • ‘The Syrian people are exhausted from years of conflict, the country will not witness another war’

DAMASCUS: The leader of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham confirmed on Wednesday that the militants did not receive any international support to confront former President Bashar Assad’s government.
HTS’ leader Abu Mohammed Al-Golani, now using his real name Ahmed Al-Sharaa, said that the weapons they fought the Assad government with were manufactured locally, according to Al Arabiya news channel. 
He added: “The Syrian people are exhausted from years of conflict, and the country will not witness another war.”
Those responsible for killing Syrians, and security and army officers in the former administration involved in torturing will be held accountable by the Military Operations Department, said Al-Sharaa.
He said in a statement: “We will pursue the war criminals and demand them from the countries to which they fled so that they may receive their just punishment.”
The leader confirmed that “a list containing the names of the most senior people involved will be announced.”
He added that “rewards will also be offered to anyone who provides information about senior army and security officers involved in war crimes.”
Al-Sharaa said that the military leadership is “committed to tolerance for those whose hands are not stained with the blood of the Syrian people,” adding that it granted amnesty to those in compulsory service.