Razan Abu Salem & Khaled El-Hissy
The Electronic Intifada / August 2, 2024
Abdelkarim became the breadwinner for his family after Israel killed his father.
On 23 October last, the family’s home was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike.
“I don’t know how I was pulled out alive,” Abdelkarim, 10, said.
With the help of neighbors, Abdelkarim found his mother. She was alive but injured in her head and legs.
His father and his two older brothers – both in their twenties – were killed.
The surviving members of the family had to flee al-Nafaq, an area in Gaza City. Israel’s troops were approaching it in tanks.
On their first night in southern Gaza, the family slept on the street.
The following day, Abdelkarim built a tent using flour sacks and sticks. It would become the new home for himself, four of his siblings and their mother.
Each morning, Abdelkarim wakes at 6 am. He queues for water and searches for food.
Sometimes he returns to his family empty-handed.
He offers to help people with various chores – such as carrying bags or fetching water – in return for a few shekels.
“I will do anything to earn a little money,” he said.
Working throughout the day, he usually makes the equivalent of $8. It is not enough to feed his family.
“Some days we do not have anything to eat,” he said.
Abdelkarim’s mother has diabetes and blood pressure.
A strip of the medicine she needs costs approximately $12. Abdelkarim has often walked from Khan Younis in the south to Deir al-Balah in the center so that he can find a pharmacy selling the right medicine.
The walk takes a few hours. Each strip of medicine only lasts about five days.
As he has so little money, it is not possible to buy several strips or packets at a time.
Abdelkarim has developed pains in his arms from carrying heavy loads.
He feels like crying out in pain. “But I must work to buy medicine for my mother,” he said.
“I don’t want to die”
Ghazal, a 6-year-old girl, screams when she hears an explosion or any other loud noise. When a bombardment occurs at night, she insists on sleeping in her father’s arms.
She is traumatized by how Israel killed her uncle in the early stages of the current genocidal war.
Ghazal keeps asking, “Where did they take Uncle Basel when he was sleeping?”
In mid-January, the Israeli military surrounded with tanks the Khan Younis school where Ghazal and her family were sheltering. The Israelis ordered everyone to leave the school within 15 minutes.
“We went through the checkpoints and walked for eight hours, with corpses lying on the ground all along the way,” Ghazal’s mother said.
“I don’t want to die,” Ghazal said repeatedly as she saw dead bodies.
“I don’t want to die like them. I am a child.”
The Israeli soldiers took Ghazal’s father into detention as they went through a checkpoint.
Ghazal tried to run after her father but the Israelis fired shots in the air.
Her father was released in April. Ghazal’s anxiety remains acute.
She has started wetting the bed again, something she had not done since she was 2.
“Ghazal cries when she wakes up, afraid that I will punish her for wetting herself,” her mother said. “But I always reassure her.”
Omar, a 5-year-old, was rescued from under the rubble in February. He is the only surviving member of his family.
When he was brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, doctors decided that he required an arm and leg amputation.
As his parents have been killed, Omar’s aunt Maha is now taking care of him.
He keeps asking where his mom and dad are. Maha does not know what to tell him.
Omar has spoken about how he saw his sister Yasmin without a head following the attack on the family.
“He is only 5,” Maha said.
“What did Omar do to those soldiers? Why have they destroyed his life?”
For almost 10 months, Israel has been attacking Gaza. The pain has been horrific for everyone, especially children.
Razan Abu Salem and Khaled El-Hissy are writers from Gaza
