As we mark International Children’s Day I asked children from different areas across the besieged Gaza Strip about their desires and inclinations on this day. Their answers were so unworldly that I was beaming while listening to them express their steadfast dreams for a shining future.
“My wish is to finish my school and become a professional doctor and to treat the poor people for free” says Abdullah Khaled 12. “I feel sad for the so many children who were maimed by the occupation fire and who can’t find treatment here so I hope to help.” Abdullah lives with his parents and 2 siblings in Al-Nuseirat Refugee camp.
I asked him if he likes the way he lives he told me “Yes it’s fine we go to school daily. When we return from school we do our homework if there is electricity and when the electricity is cut off I go outside to play with my neighbors’ children.” He noted that he sometimes feels grateful for the electricity cut because they enjoy the time with friends a sad reality for most of the children in Gaza.
When I asked him if he dreamt of a better life he stayed silent wondering what a better life could be. Then he whispered to me laughing “I wish that my father has a lot of money and that the electricity is on all the time so I can watch the TV whenever I want.”
Israel has been practicing collective punishment against the coastal enclave imposing a strangling blockade on its population since the beginning of the Palestinian intifada in 2000 which was severely tightened in 2006.
Unfortunately the international community deals with the Gaza Strip as a human crisis that only needs relief efforts but the long-term consequences of this severe occupation and blockade including psychological affects and societal ills are often ignored.
I have personally experienced this and my children are not far away from these realities as well. My oldest son is 7 and half years old and a survivor of 3 Israeli onslaughts. I saw him one day engrossed drawing a charming picture of nature but I noticed an airplane in the sky; I asked him if it was a Palestinian plane.
And he told me trustingly “No it is an Israeli plane as it is always in my sky buzzing in my head so I can’t draw nature without it because it’s part of my sky.” It was agonizing for me devastated for my children for thinking this way. Sadly this is the truth. The Israeli warplanes have become a part of life for the people of Gaza.
Nadine Abdellatif 11 from Gaza city managed to travel to Malaysia after several attempts to exit Gaza. She says “After long and arduous trip through Rafah crossing which connects Gaza with Egypt I reached Malaysia.” Her experience outside of Gaza her first time leaving Gaza was an eye-opening one: “I felt that I was re-born in another life everything is different I saw airplanes airports trains many malls.” She saw firsthand how the norms of life in Gaza affect her every day. “I never experience the electricity 24 hours I don’t need to check my phone battery all the time because I am worried of electricity cut.” The experience of living under Israeli siege in Gaza is unlike that of other children. She says “When I heard an airplane in the sky I thought there will be a war but they laughed at me telling me that this is normal it’s the movement of the planes.” Nadine wishes for her and other children to enjoy their childhood and achieve their dreams.
Children constitute nearly half of the population in the impoverished Gaza Strip and are the most vulnerable Palestinian group. They are subject to all forms of violence and torment in a daily basis. Currently 170 children are held in the Israeli prisons deprived of their childhood independence.
Following this year’s aggression on Gaza the UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm at the high number of Palestinians including children murdered and injured in the occupied Palestinian territory in 2022 including in intense hostilities. She assured that the international humanitarian law is clear: Launching an attack which may be expected to incidentally kill or injure civilians or damage civilian objects in a disproportionate manner to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated is prohibited. Such attacks must stop.
According to official data Israel has massacred nearly a thousand Palestinian children in the besieged Gaza Strip during repeated aerial assaults since the beginning of the siege adding a gruesome number to the already-devastating population of the hundreds of sick and poor children who lost their lives due to the closure of crossings and the lack of medical treatment.
The United Nations’ representatives voicing out their concerns here and there is significant but not enough there should be a concerted effort of the entire world to force Israel to lift the siege on Gaza and to end the colonization of Palestine at large.
– Wafa Aludaini is a Gaza-based journalist and activist. She contributed this article to the Palestinian Information Center.
