The Electronic Intifada 28 June 2024
When will Israel stop waging war against Gaza’s children?
APA imagesI was shocked when I heard Yazid, 11, talking about a firebelt.
In most parts of the world, children are unfamiliar with that term. Here in Gaza, so many children have experienced a firebelt – a period of relentless bombardment.
Yazid learned the word “firebelt” when he overheard a conversation between his father and other adults around him.
“A firebelt is very loud,” Yazid said. “And you feel it.”
Yazid spoke of how everything is destroyed in a firebelt and many people can be killed.
“I am afraid that one day I will be one of the victims,” he said.
His sister Sumaya, 13, burst into tears as she recalled how her family had to flee their home amid an Israeli bombardment.
“I forgot my toy bag,” she said. “My drawing books were in it.”
Coloring is therapeutic for Sumaya. Before her displacement, she colored things to try and take her mind off Israel’s violence.
She was upset that she had left behind the material she needed for coloring.
Amir, 14, lived in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. He and his family had to flee their home and take shelter in schools run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).
“Our whole house is gone,” he said. “Our whole neighborhood is gone.”
One of Amir’s school friends has been killed during the war. Amir saw what remained of his friend’s body.
“May God have mercy on him,” Amir said.
Suad, 13, was one of the girls I spoke to in a school where displaced people have taken shelter.
She told me about how her only brother Samir had been killed.
“We were talking and laughing and Samir was playing football in the courtyard of our house,” she said. “Suddenly, I felt the ground shaking.”
Suad lost consciousness. She learned that her brother had been killed when she woke up in hospital.
“I couldn’t understand what had happened,” Suad said. “I asked my father, my mother, everyone I saw in front of me.”
“After I insisted, they told me that we had been bombed,” she added. “My brother ended up with all the rubble on top of him.”
When will Israel stop waging war against Gaza’s children?
Israa Elholy is a writer from Gaza.
