No child should ever have to see the horrors of Gaza. Israel-Palestine conflict

For the last 15 months, the children of Gaza have been reduced to single figures. The number of deaths reported gives a specific count for children. Malnutrition and starvation are reported in terms of the number of children affected and killed by them. Even cold weather is measured by how many children it has killed in makeshift tents.

But behind these figures lie the heart-wrenching stories of Palestinian children whose childhoods have been lost. As a nurse working in the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and then in a makeshift clinic in a displacement camp, I have heard so many harrowing stories of children suffering amid this terrible war.

The pain of trying to escape the genocide is made even more unbearable by seeing so many children suffering.

In early November 2023, while I was on shift in the emergency department, several injured people were brought in after another violent bombing. I went to look after one of them: 10-year-old Tala.

When I examined him, I saw that his hand was already cut and he had serious injuries all over his body. She was crying loudly and asking about her aunt. I did not know what to say. I gave him a painkiller to calm him down a bit.

I tried to talk to her and reduce her tears. He told me that he had lost his entire family because of the previous bomb explosion at his house. She was not at home, so she was the only survivor. She was taken in by her aunt and was staying at her home when a missile hit a neighboring building. She was injured by the explosion and shrapnel.

As soon as the painkillers wore off, Tala again started crying loudly because of the physical and mental pain of what happened to him. It was heartbreaking to see this little girl suffer so much. He had to go to school, play with his friends, hug his family. And here she was all alone, in unbearable pain and sorrow. How will she continue her life?

Every time she went to bed, I would cry. She remained in the hospital for two weeks and was eventually released to her aunt.

Tala was one of several children I saw in the emergency department of al-Shifa before they were deported by the Israelis in late November. Most of the bomb blast victims I treated were children. Many people had suffered injuries similar to Tala, some had even more serious injuries. Most of them had seen their family members either cut into pieces, bleeding or seriously injured. Many people became orphans.

When I visited a displacement camp in the south, I saw no less suffering of children. I volunteered at a medical center in the camp, where many of the patients were children.

One day in January 2024, a worried mother came to us with her seven-year-old son, named Yusuf. She told us that he had been ill for several weeks and that she did not know what was bothering him. When we examined him, we found that he was suffering from viral hepatitis and he was in the advanced stage of the disease. He was in great pain, suffering from vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever.

We couldn’t do much for him. Joseph died a few days later.

His death did not even become a statistic. He was not killed by an Israeli bomb, so he was not included in the death toll reported that day.

But he was still a victim of this genocidal war. He might have survived if Gaza’s health care system had not been destroyed.

Children in Gaza also suffer other injuries that I, as a medical professional, cannot help with, even if I had all the medicine and all the equipment in the world. These are the psychological wounds that accompany every single child survivor of this genocide.

In July, I spoke to 11-year-old Ahmed in an area of ​​Khan Yunis where children go to fly kites. I was there to talk to “healthy” kids – the ones I didn’t see in the makeshift clinic.

“There is nothing worse than this situation. The condition of the children is like a shoe!” He told me.

I was surprised by his answer and laughed.

I asked him, “What saddened you most about this war?” With eyes heavy with grief, he replied in one word: loss. He had lost his mother.

He said: “The occupation launched a frenzied attack on us and bombed our entire residential block. As for my mother, I did not see her, because that day I was hit by shrapnel near the skull and was taken to intensive care. Three days later, when I woke up and called my mother, she told me that Israel had killed him just like that.

I controlled myself; I didn’t want to cry in front of him. I’m sure I was weaker than him in this moment.

No child deserves this miserable life. No child should suffer from a preventable disease; No child should be burned or maimed by a bomb. No child should see their parents die.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.