Gaza’s children amid rubble of schools, burdens of work… Dreams buried under war
In a land where young eyes opened to the sound of airplanes, not to morning school songs, the children of Gaza rise every day burdened with more than their age can bear.
The school bag is no longer a part of their day, nor is the whiteboard their destination. Instead, the rubble has become their temporary refuge, and hard work their only means of survival.
While children around the world play in schoolyards, their peers here toil on the sidewalks, learning the harshness of life before they learn to read and write.
Yousef Abu Hadaf, 14, who should be in eighth grade today, instead sits in front of a modest stall on the Khan Yunis beach, selling groceries for ten shekels a day.
He tells Filastin newspaper, in a voice filled with bitterness that belies his years: “We are very tired of the war. I want to go back to school, but the circumstances are too much for me.”
Ahmed Mansour, meanwhile, drives his small cart between the displacement camps in Deir al-Balah, selling water and iced drinks from morning until night, earning barely enough to make ends meet.
He says bitterly, “I wish I could be in school and learn, but the war has taken everything from us. Our lives have become work and suffering.”
Moatasem Khaled, a former top student in the ninth grade, now helps his mother make cookies in the morning to sell on the streets.
He says with regret, “I was good at school. Today I’ve become a cookie seller. Isn’t it a shame that my future is being ruined like this?”
As for Ahmed Al-Amawi, 15, he dreamed of becoming an engineer and building a home for his family. But today, he reviews his old lessons, hoping not to forget what he’s learned. He says, “I’m afraid that years will pass without a degree. My friends are either martyred or displaced, and all our dreams are lost.”
These numbers reflect the scale of the disaster. The Ministry of Education announced the martyrdom of more than 17,000 school students and 1,261 university students since October 7, 2023, in addition to hundreds of teachers and thousands of wounded.
UNRWA warned that the Gaza Strip “risks losing an entire generation of children,” stressing that “the war in Gaza is a war on childhood before anything else.”
While the children of Gaza are trying to hold on to what little remains of their dreams, their painful question remains: Will they ever return to school, or will the war steal their future forever?
With American and European support, the Israeli enemy army has continued to commit crimes of genocide, siege, and starvation in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. The enemy killed 65,502 Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom are children and women, and wounded 167,376 others. This remains a preliminary toll, with thousands of victims still buried under the rubble and on the streets, unable to be reached by ambulances and rescue teams.