Gaza, there are those who try to alleviate the suffering of the children of the Strip with the sole weapons of joy and play

BEIRUT – Even though Osama tells us about it with passion on the phone, we struggle to visualize the scene of little girls smiling and playing in a small space in that enormous prison camp that is now Rafa. “They arrive slowly attracted by our music. But they don’t arrive running and joyful like children all over the world do, on their faces the grimaces of fear, hunger and often the pain of the wounds they have sustained. After a while, however, they start to smile and then play and dance with us.” Osama Issan is one of the students of the “Free GazaCircus”, the circus school that was founded in recent years in the Strip with the aim of involving young Palestinians.

The only weapons of joy and play. Since October he and many other students have been desperately trying to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s children with the only weapons at their disposal: joy and play. “For a few minutes during the shows – Osama tells us – the children forget about the war. They find a reason to breathe, to feel alive again. They play and scream as they want. I hope this helps them understand that they are not just victims, but that they also have the power to react and not just survive the horror.”

The Strip “A cemetery for children”. However, we are able, unfortunately easily, to visualize the faces of the children of Gaza. They are the same ones that we see in the refugee camps of Sudan, in those of Bosnia and that we often see here in Lebanon in the settlements of Syrian refugees. This time, however, there is something different, something that makes what is happening before our eyes even more inhumane: the dimension of tragedy. According to the United Nations The Gaza Strip has become the worst place on earth for a child. “A cemetery for children”, precisely, as Secretary General Guterres described it on November 6th. Three weeks into the war, the number of children killed in bombings has surpassed the annual toll of children killed in conflict zones since 2019 in more than 20 countries.

The children who died under bombs or from starvation. To date, more than 13,200 children have been killed, representing, together with women, more than two-thirds of the conflict’s total victims. 17 children died of starvation “Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of explosions. Their bodies are thrown farther, their bones are more fragile and, with less blood in their bodies, they are more susceptible to bleeding.” Said Jason Lee, director of Save the Children in the Palestinian Territories. Since the beginning of the conflict, according to the United Nations, every day on average ten children have lost one or both legs due to bombing and 90% of children under five are affected by one or more infectious diseases.

The fate of newborns. “Newborns are dying due to a lack of healthcare and premature births have increased dramatically due to stress.” Jason Lee continues. In the Gaza Strip, around 180 children are born every day, bringing the number of children born during the war to around 20,000. war. “It’s something I’ve never seen before in Gaza: children rummaging through landfills to collect food, others carrying plastic jerrycans to water points – says Jonathan Crickx, spokesman for UNICEF – all children in the Gaza Strip are at imminent risk of famine, while the enclave experiences the worst level of malnutrition in the world. So far, as UNICEF, we have already recorded 17 children who have died from hunger.”

The measurement of malnutrition. To assess malnutrition, United Nations staff measures, as always, the diameter of children’s arms. Result: in the South, where most of the aid arrives, 5% of children already suffer from severe malnutrition with long-term risks of anemia, growth problems and brain development. A situation that affects 15% of children in the north of the enclave, under the control of Israeli forces, while 3% of them suffer from wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition.

Food scraps left by mice. “Families are sometimes forced to look for food scraps left by rats and eat leaves to survive,” Making Yasmine smile again According to UNICEF, more than 17,000 children in Gaza are separated from their families. When possible, the extended family, a neighbor or even a stranger takes care of them. Then there are the “unaccompanied” minors, like Yasmine.

The dream of making Yasmine smile. “My little dream is to make Yasmine smile.” Says Osama. “At about 8 years old, she arrived here about twenty days ago from Gaza. The bombing that killed his entire family also took away his legs. She no longer has anyone, she doesn’t speak and we can barely get her to eat. Sometimes he cries silently, but he can’t even scream. I don’t understand why you Western journalists insist on calling this thing war. War is made by armed adults fighting each other, what we experience here is a slaughterhouse, the attempt to erase a people, its history and its future.”