Childhoods
lost in Gaza
How Israel's year-long war on the enclave
has robbed two Palestinian children
of their safety, homes and innocence
They should be safe to play freely, with their only worries being that their mother didn’t make their favourite food for dinner, their new toy broke or a sibling is taunting them.
Instead, young people in Gaza have had their childhoods stripped from them. They are forced to survive on canned food, drink dirty water and learn how to make a tent using wood and nylon, as well as what an air strike can do to the human body.
In Gaza, a new abbreviation was coined among doctors: wounded child, no surviving family (WCNSF). Those that have survived so far have had everything – their homes, education, friends, family, toys, clothes and dreams - taken from them.
Children make up about a half of the enclave's 2.3 million population, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said. By April - about halfway through the war - nearly 26,000 had been killed or injured.
Children in Gaza have lost their homes and family members in Israel's war on the enclave
Children in Gaza have lost their homes and family members in Israel's war on the enclave
A Save the Children report published in June estimated that up to 21,000 children were missing, with many trapped beneath the rubble, detained or buried in unmarked graves.
In November 2023, The National spoke to four children about their experiences after a month of war. No one could have known how long the conflict would last. In September, we sought to speak to them again. With forced displacement affecting nine in 10 Palestinians in Gaza, our correspondent in the enclave could only find two of the children. The status and whereabouts of the others remains unknown.
Oday, seven, and Ayat, 13, were interviewed in November 2023 after being displaced from their homes, but could not be found this year
Oday, seven, and Ayat, 13, were interviewed in November 2023 after being displaced from their homes, but could not be found this year
Maisara El Hindi
Eleven-year-old Maisara Hani El Hindi’s ultimate wish is play football again.
A bright red football shirt belonging to the Service Club Academy in Khan Younis, where he played, was once the sign of an exciting future. Now the faded shirt in a remnant from a past life.
Maisara wears his football strip as walks to a charity kitchen to collect food for his family
Maisara wears his football strip as walks to a charity kitchen to collect food for his family
One of six siblings, Maisara was forced to grow up too soon. His help was crucial to his father after Maisara's three eldest brothers were injured by shrapnel from Israeli air strikes. His brothers were also injured in the 2018-2019 Great March for Return, peaceful demonstrations on the border with Israel, with one of them, Hamdeh, losing an eye to Israeli fire.
Today, instead of perfecting his football skills, Maisara has become a master at building a shelter from wood and nylon. “I can make one now for you if you want,” he says, somewhat proudly. “It’s the one thing I learnt to do the most."
About 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced since the war began - some up to 20 times – due to Israeli eviction orders, bombardment, or in an attempt to escape the violence.
The first time Maisara and his family fled their home in October, during the first 10 days of the war, they sought refuge at nearby Nasser Hospital, believing it would be their only time away from home. They joined thousands of others, who believed hospitals would be safe, in the absence of bomb shelters and rocket sirens.
Maisara and his family lived for month in Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, after being displaced for the first time
Maisara and his family lived for month in Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, after being displaced for the first time
Families slept in corridors and on stairways, making making homes out of every square metre of the hospital's floors.
During the temporary "humanitarian pause" in mid-November, the family returned to their home. But they fled once more in early December as Israeli tanks approached.
After regrouping briefly at Nasser Hospital, Maisara and his family moved to Rafah. In June, after fighting intensified in the southern city, the family moved back to their damaged home in Khan Younis. Each time, they travelled for hours without access to shelter or a clean bathroom. Maisara remembers the cold. “We woke up shivering," he says.
Maisara and his mother Melina on the bedding that became their temporary home at Nasser Hospital
Maisara and his mother Melina on the bedding that became their temporary home at Nasser Hospital
Shortly after the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, Israel halted supplies of clean water into Gaza, claiming it would cut fighters off from their resources. Today, millions of civilians lack access to clean water, aid, food and fuel, in what the UN has called a form of collective punishment.
The consequences are widespread and devastating.
Maisara’s experiences in the past year have diminished the light in his big brown eyes and he speaks with sadness about all he has endured and the weight of responsibility on his small shoulders. His crooked teeth have yellowed and he can only wash himself occasionally because water is so scarce.
Maisara fills containers with water to carry home for his family to use
Maisara fills containers with water to carry home for his family to use
The agony of life in war does not ease when he sleeps. At night, he is haunted by images of what he saw at Nasser Hospital when his family sought safety there.
“The headless bodies and people without legs. I can’t forget them. They’re in my mind. I see them in my dreams every night,” he says.
Maisara and his family were forced to flee their home in Khan Younis
Maisara and his family were forced to flee their home in Khan Younis
Despite his young age, Maisara has already lived through three wars. A 2020 study found that more than half of all children in the enclave (53.5 per cent) suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder before October 7.
Speaking to The National a month into the war, Dr Samah Jabr, of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, said "people have post-traumatic stress disorder and severe bereavement but don’t have time to process what they’re going through because they’re just focused on survival - so, they dissociate".
But Maisara’s grim reality will not stop when the guns fall silent. The effects of this war will weight on him ever time he plays football, knowing his cousin Baraa can no longer play with him.
“We used to play together before the war. Now he’s dead," Maisara says. "Who will I play with now?”
Maisara makes firewood at a make-shift bakery near his home
Maisara makes firewood at a make-shift bakery near his home
For now, all Maisara wants to live without the sound of bombs falling and ambulances rushing to save lives.
“I’m sick of displacement and struggling to get water," he adds. "I want to live without hearing the sound of air strikes and sirens.
“I just want to go back to the way things were – to the Services Club to play football with my friends and live like we used to. I want to buy new clothes. I want to go back to school. I want to play again.”
Joury Hellis
Dressed in a blue striped jacket with a rainbow-sequined collar, a dirty white shirt visible underneath, Joury Yahia Hellis, 12, was just coming to terms with being homeless a month into the war.
Her family's home in Shujaiya, in eastern Gaza city, was destroyed in an Israeli strike three days into the war. None of her family were there at the time. Joury, her three brothers, aged four to 14, and her parents went to stay at her aunt's house in Al Zahra neighbourhood, in central Gaza. But that would not be a safe place for long as, on October 28, her aunt's home was bombed and destroyed.
Displaced again, Joury and her family sought refuge at the UN-run Abu Hadayed school in Khan Younis, along with hundreds of Palestinians who thought they could escape the Israeli bombardment.
Joury and her father, Yahia, at the UN school where their family lived after fleeing their home. They would be displaced five more times by October 2024
Joury and her father, Yahia, at the UN school where their family lived after fleeing their home. They would be displaced five more times by October 2024
Joury, who was in year six when the war began, had been studying for an exam and was keen to retain her top three status in class, but the exam never took place. More than 630,000 pupils have gone a full year without education in Gaza, the Palestinian Education Ministry said.
“I was an excellent pupil,” she says.
Joury had been studying for an exam before war broke out
Joury had been studying for an exam before war broke out
The certainty that came with knowing she would be with her friends during the day, and with her family in the evening, and that hard work pays off, disappeared during the war.
“I miss my school, I miss my exams, I miss my books and my bag and my school clothes that I would prepare every day. I miss everything about school,” she told The National in 2023. She wished to become a doctor "to treat the wounded" in Gaza.
A month after the war began, she was clinging to memories of the toys and books she left behind.
Joury plays with a boy at the school where their family sought refuge from the war
Joury plays with a boy at the school where their family sought refuge from the war
“I like reading stories like Alice in Wonderland, The Rabbit and the Hare, The tale of the Fisherman and the Fish,” she told The National at the time. Now, those stories have been lost, along with her room and her childhood.
A year on, Joury is worse for wear. Her once easy smiles have been replaced with a constant gentle frown, having faced displacement and hardship. Her thoughts now revolve around whether or not there will be enough food for her family, a safe place to sleep and whether the bombs will ever stop. Such concerns are far too heavy for a child her age.
Joury worries about what awaits her family, after a year of war
Joury worries about what awaits her family, after a year of war
She struggles to escape her reality. Her mind is focused on escaping the bombing – and with almost no safe zones left in Gaza, Joury usually runs towards the only place left for her to hide from the war: her parents’ arms.
"I can’t believe it’s been a year of war and I feel like I’m in a nightmare," she says.
"When I hear the sounds of the missiles, I go to my mum or dad because we get scared, and they are the source of safety. The sounds of the missiles are terrifying. We feel as though they’re coming towards us to explode on us."
Joury and her father, whose three chicken farms have been destroyed in the war, in their tent in Nuseirat camp
Joury and her father, whose three chicken farms have been destroyed in the war, in their tent in Nuseirat camp
Joury’s home is now a tent on a beach in Nuseirat camp, central Gaza, after she was displaced six times.
“It’s been two weeks in this tent and it’s hot," she says. "When we wake up in the morning, we find flies all over us. And when we sleep, the sound of the beach is scary and it doesn’t let us sleep."
Joury says the sound of the waves scares her at night
Joury says the sound of the waves scares her at night
She struggles to cope with the sound of Israeli attacks as well. “The sound of missiles is terrifying … it makes us cry.”
Although none of her direct relatives have been killed, more than 72 members of the Hellis family have died in the war. Today, Joury is desperate for the violence to end, so she can return to the life she once knew.
“I want a normal life," she adds. "I want to play with my friends and go to school normally. I want to live like children outside [Gaza].
"I want Gaza to be rebuilt and the restaurants to come back and the playgrounds and all the houses to be nicer than before, and for all the entertainment areas [to return], and the schools to return, and the electricity to return so we can watch TV, and for [Gaza] to return better than before."
Joury and her family have been displaced six times, most recently to a beach in Nuseirat
Joury and her family have been displaced six times, most recently to a beach in Nuseirat
And to the world, she issues a cry for help. “I want to say to the countries that see us being bombed: free us and stop the war from coming back each year. Stand with us and stop the war.”
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