Thirteen-year-old Solave* being treated in a makeshift hospital in Gaza. She lost her leg when a bomb hit her aunt’s house while she was sheltering there. Her two brothers died in the attack.*Not her real name.Credit:Save The Children
When they eventually made it to the hospital,the doctors tried to treat Solave’s horrific injuries with the limited medical supplies they had,but they couldn’t save both her legs. She lost her right leg. She also lost two of her brothers that day,and any essence of childhood that was left in her life.
I heard many stories like Solave’s when I was in the Gaza Strip,where I completed a mission as an aid worker with Save the Children last week. Those stories included children who’d had amputations and operations with very little pain relief,leaving them fearful about any medical procedures,even dressing changes.
A horrifying number of children have been killed and maimed in Gaza since the war started seven months ago:a “grave violation”,according to UNICEF. Whole families have been wiped out. I lost count of the number of people who told me they had lost not only their children and partner,but their entire extended family of brothers,sisters,nieces,nephews,cousins. How do you cope with that kind of loss?
I feel physically sick to know more children are being killed right now as theassault on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip intensifies. More than half a million children are currently sheltering in Rafah. Families I spoke to last week told me they were terrified,that they lie awake at night listening to the bombs and drones and wondering how they will protect their children. And how they will find the energy to flee yet again.
Ten-year-old Ahmed* was severely injured when an airstrike hit a house close to where he was playing with his friends in the Gaza Strip. A piece of shrapnel struck his leg. Many of Ahmed’s friends were killed in the same strike.*Not his real name.Credit:Sacha Myers/Save The Children
“Where do we go? Where will be safe?” they asked me over and over.
I didn’t have an answer for them because,right now,nowhere is safe in Gaza. There is nothing safe about the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in Al Mawasi and Khan Younis – children have been killed in both of these areas in the past after they were forced to relocate there. I’ve also been to these areas of Gaza,and I can assure you they are not safe,and they cannot sustain human life.