As a student publication devoted to promoting public awareness of global politics and current events, we are responsible for addressing the Israel-Palestine conflict. The following is an accessible and comprehensive summary, carefully composed by Moslima Hassani (2024).

What is the war on Gaza doing to Palestinian families? (A glimpse into a long story)

Moslima Hassani ‘24

Entire generations of Palestinian families in the besieged Gaza Strip — from great-grandparents to infants only weeks old — have been killed, and continue to be slaughtered in airstrikes in the war on the Gaza Strip, in which the Israeli army says it aims to root out the militant group, Hamas, from the densely populated coastal territory.

There have been various articles and videos of Palestinian families being projected in the West, where the parents write their names on the arms of their infants, in case they are killed or separated from them during the bombing. However, no one ever grows too old in Gaza, because since October 7, more than 6,600 children in Gaza have been killed and thousands are missing under the rubble. “In their stated intent to use all means to destroy Hamas, Israeli forces have shown a shocking disregard for civilian lives. They have pulverized street after street of residential buildings killing civilians on a mass scale and destroying essential infrastructure. Testimonies from eyewitnesses and survivors highlighted, again and again, how Israeli attacks decimated Palestinian families, causing such destruction that surviving relatives have little but rubble to remember their loved ones by,” as stated by Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

Even the children in the families who survive these attacks are forced to carry the memories and the physical and mental scars with them for the rest of their lives. According to a report by Save the Children, four out of five children in Gaza are living with depression, grief, and fear, while more than half struggle with suicidal thoughts. They also experience trauma from witnessing the deaths of other children and their families, friends, and peers.

The number of displaced families in Gaza since October 7 has outnumbered the historical displacement of Palestinians during the Nakba.* Approximately 958,000 displaced Palestinians have been registered in 99 UNRWA shelters in the center and south of Gaza. These are the families who do not even get the time to mourn the loss of their loved ones; instead, they are forced to flee their homes and evacuate to the south of Gaza, which has been designated by the Israeli government as a “safe place,” but has still not been excluded from its bombardment targets.

As this tragedy continues to unfold, the number of displaced families will continue to grow.

Bibliography

Aljazeera.com. "How Are Palestinian Children Affected by the Israel-Hamas War?" https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/how-are-children-in-gaza-affected-by-the-israel-hamas-war.

Amnesty.org. "Damning Evidence of War Crimes as Israeli Attacks Wipe out Entire Families in Gaza." October 20, 2023. Accessed December 7, 2023. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/damning-evidence-of-war-crimes-as-israeli-attacks-wipe-out-entire-families-in-gaza/.

Kim, Juliana. "Palestinian student shot in Vermont is paralyzed from chest down, his family says." npr.org. Accessed December 9, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/12/03/1216852611/palestinian-student-shot-in-vermont-is-paralyzed-from-chest-down-his-family-says.

Kullab, Samya, and Najib Jobain. "Their Families Wiped Out, Grieving Palestinians in Gaza Ask Why." AP News. Accessed November 2023. https://apnews.com/article/palestinians-israel-airstrikes-gaza-hamas-war-689624bc9069c10b5fa154a762f6da6f#:~:text=was%20only%20silence.-,Entire%20generations%20of%20Palestinian%20families%20in%20the%20besieged%20Gaza%20Strip,the%20densely%20populated%20coastal%20territory.

"The Nakba Did Not Start or End in 1948." Aljazeera. Accessed December 8, 2023. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948.