Khan Younis, Gaza – Lying on a bed in the European Hospital in southern Gaza, hidden behind bandages that wrapped his disfigured face, five-year-old Ahmed Abu Zariaan remained unknown for more than a week.
The injured boy was among a growing number of children in the war-torn enclave to be registered as “unknown”, or under the acronym WCNSF – injured child, with no surviving family.
Ahmed’s family was wiped out in an Israeli air raid as they headed south along Salah al-Din Street, a route designated by Israel for safe passage from northern Gaza, early november.
Responding to the Israeli army’s order for residents of the northern part of the enclave to evacuate to the south, the family of five left Beit Hanoon on a donkey cart and headed toward Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
A strike targeting a nearby house along the way killed the entire family but spared the five-year-old child. Nour Lafi, a 28-year-old nurse at the European Hospital, said the boy remained in intensive care for two weeks after suffering serious injuries and burns.
“His face was not visible at all and no one recognized him. He was anonymous,” she said. “No member of his family was there. I could hear him moaning in pain. We tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t say a word.
The boy was recognized 10 days later by his grandmother.
UNICEF, the United Nations child protection agency, estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or have been separated from their immediate parents since the conflict began on October 7 – or about 1 percent of the total displaced population of 1.7 million people.
In Gaza, where Israel’s brutal war has passed the four-month mark, parents have long resorted to writing their children’s names on their bodies so they could identify them if they were killed or injured. When no indication of their identity is immediately available, hospitals send alerts on social networks in the hope that their loved ones will come forward.
Yet sometimes a child’s injuries are so severe that their own family has difficulty recognizing them.
During the conflict, according to the NGO Save the Children, more than 10 children lose one or both legs every day.
“Missiles destroy people outside and inside”
Samira Abu Zariaan, 60, is still in shock that her daughter was killed, but she has taken care of her grandson, whose physical and psychological injuries have turned his life upside down.
“His emotional state is still very difficult,” Samira told Tel Aviv Tribune. “He didn’t talk much. His voice trembles with fear. He is afraid of noises near him.
Ahmed asked about his mother, but Samira couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth. “He doesn’t know she was killed. I told her she was hurt and needed to rest.
“I don’t know how Ahmed will get over his shock. These missiles are destroying people outside and inside,” she said. “He went from a happy, mischievous and talkative child to a silent and still child.”
The UN estimates that around 40 percent of Gaza residents have lost their identity cards and other documents, making it harder to identify unaccompanied children and reunite them with their families.
“Forced separation exposes children to various dangers and increased risks of exploitation, neglect and abuse,” UNICEF spokesperson Ammar Ammar told Tel Aviv Tribune.
A 2022 assessment by Save the Children found that the psychosocial well-being of children in Gaza had reached alarming levels due to protracted conflict, a global pandemic and a crippling blockade.
The needs are now “unimaginable”, Soraya Ali, regional spokesperson for Save the Children, told Tel Aviv Tribune. “Children experience increased feelings of anxiety and depression after experiencing conflict, leading to long-term consequences. »
According to UNICEF estimates, around 500,000 children were already in need of mental health care and psychosocial support in Gaza before the assault began.
Today, that number is estimated to have doubled to more than a million children – due to what he describes as “a war on children” that has made the Gaza Strip the world’s most dangerous in the world for children.
More than 28,000 people were killed, including more than 12,000 children, during Israel’s war on Gaza.
Potentially fatal shortages
As children face a mental health crisis, essential medical and food supplies continue to fail to enter Gaza. Humanitarian convoys carrying survival equipment have come under fire from Israeli forces, despite being clearly labeled.
According to the latest UN assessments, 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, operating at several times their capacity while facing severe shortages of basic supplies and fuel.
Humanitarian organizations have called for an end to hostilities to allow an increase in the humanitarian aid that is gradually arriving.
“UNICEF can increase its support, but we urgently need full access to communities and families to properly identify, register, provide temporary care arrangements and conduct tracing and reunification services families for children,” Ammar said.
“An immediate and lasting ceasefire is the only way to end the killings, injuries and separation of children and their families. »
Save the Children also called for a permanent ceasefire, Ali said, “so that we can go to Gaza and start providing the mental and psychosocial support that we desperately need.”
(Federica Marsi reported from Italy for this article.)