Jabalia, Gaza – Omar Halawa obtained up from his chair, like several 13-year-old youngster would. However he had forgotten a devastating element about himself: he solely had one leg.
“He fell off the chair,” his mom Yasmin Halawa advised Al Jazeera. “It is rather unhappy for us all, seeing him like that.”
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Omar misplaced his proper leg three months in the past. On October 1, 2025, as Israel intensified its floor invasion of Gaza amid ceasefire talks with Hamas, Omar was on the road together with his 11-year-old sister Layan, cousin Moath Halawa, 13, and pal Mohammed Al Siksik, additionally 13, to get water from a tanker that had come close to their camp in north Gaza’s Jabalia space.
“It was unattainable to pay 6000 shekels for a automobile to get us to the south, so we had determined to remain within the north,” recalled Yasmin, including that the household had been displaced greater than 15 instances throughout the Israeli genocidal conflict that started in October 2023.
“The ingesting water provide grew to become very uncommon within the space, so the youngsters of the camp determined to rise up simply after daybreak to have the ability to get in line for a gallon of water. Moments later, the shelling began and we felt afraid for our kids, Layan and Omar,” she stated.
As she reeled from doubts over sending the youngsters to get water, they heard somebody shouting that Omar had been hit by the shelling.
“The very first thing he requested when he awoke after surgical procedure was about his pal and cousin who had been according to him for water,” stated Yasmin. “They had been each killed.”
The household buried Omar’s amputated leg close to their tent. He visits the grave on daily basis. “My leg went to heaven earlier than me,” he says.
‘Worst place on this planet for kids’
Omar had been grappling with deaths and destructions as quickly because the conflict began. In November 2023, as Israel bombed northern Gaza, Layan was injured by shattered glass of the home windows throughout their home.
“After a horrific night time, we left the home elevating a white piece of material in order that the Israeli troopers don’t shoot at us, holding Hatem between my arms and strolling with Omar and Layan by my facet. On the way in which out, they noticed the beheaded physique of their eight-year-old cousin together with different martyrs. They froze in horror and began screaming and crying,” stated Yasmin. Hatem is 4.
“My youngsters have been emotionally disturbed after that have. Layan struggled with bedwetting and Omar is afraid on a regular basis, even from the sound of a chair hitting the ground.”
Omar and Layal are amongst tens of hundreds of kids in Gaza bearing the scars of a brutal genocide that has killed greater than 71,000 Palestinians, 20,000 of them youngsters. Almost 42,000 different youngsters have been injured, half of them sustaining life-altering accidents, because the Israeli assaults proceed in violation of a United States-brokered ceasefire.
No less than 39,000 youngsters in Gaza are actually left with out one or each mother and father – the biggest orphan disaster in trendy historical past.
“As an alternative of having fun with their childhood, Palestinian youngsters reside within the worst place on this planet for kids. Even after the agreed ceasefire, greater than 95 youngsters have been killed,” UNICEF spokesperson Kazem Abu Khalaf advised Al Jazeera, including that greater than 4,000 youngsters in Gaza want rapid medical evacuation.
Two years of extreme Israeli blockade on meals and important assist has made the humanitarian disaster even worse. “Virtually 165 youngsters have died resulting from malnutrition and starvation in Gaza since October 2023,” Khalaf stated.
The Built-in Meals Safety Section Classification (IPC) says 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza, or 77 p.c of its inhabitants, together with about 800,000 youngsters, will proceed to face acute meals insecurity in 2026.
‘On chilly days, it hurts much more’
Among the many youngsters in determined want of diet is Rahaf Al Najjar, who can also be 13 like Omar.
Rahaf was fetching meals for her 5 siblings in northwest Gaza’s Sudaniya space in September final 12 months when hearth from an Israeli quadcopter pierced each her legs.
“She is therapeutic slowly. I’m solely capable of present her 4 eggs per week. She nonetheless has irritation in each her legs and desires extra nutritious meals to heal quicker. I can’t carry meat or hen for her, I don’t come up with the money for for that. Typically, I carry her a fruit to eat with out letting her siblings find out about it,” Rahaf’s 35-year-old mom Buthayna Al Najjar advised Al Jazeera at their tent in Jabalia.
Rahaf says the continued harsh winter has made her damage worse. “On chilly days, it hurts much more. I really feel electrical‑like jolts in my leg. I must take a medication to really feel higher and have the ability to sleep,” she advised Al Jazeera.
Rahaf witnessed the killing of her father Ghassan Al Najjar, who, she says, “used to pamper her greater than her different siblings”.
Ghassan died in an Israeli drone strike on November 5, 2024 whereas he was pulling the physique of his cousin at Jabalia camp. Buthayna says Rahaf was capable of crawl to her wounded father and dragged his physique inside a tent.
“Her father was nonetheless alive. He advised her: ‘Be sturdy, my daughter, and say salam to your mother’. Then he took his final breath whereas she was nonetheless holding him, screaming and crying,” the mom recalled.
Rahaf says she misses her father most when she is hungry or in ache. She additionally misses faculty. “I want I might get again to high school. I miss drawing and PE courses,” she advised Al Jazeera.
Buthayna says she has no cash left for her youngsters’s training. “I offered my cellular after shedding my husband, so I might get my youngsters some meals,” she stated.
Fears of shedding ‘a complete technology’
Interrupted training and a lack of acquainted routines has worsened emotions of uncertainty and helplessness amongst Gaza’s youngsters, who’ve misplaced two years of education as a result of bombing and displacement, and are pressured to stay in tents and assist in fetching meals and water for his or her displaced households.
“We’ve misplaced greater than 20,000 college students within the Israeli conflict throughout two years of aggression,” Jawad Shiekh-Khalil, director of training in western Gaza, advised Al Jazeera. “Ninety p.c of the Ministry of Training’s buildings have been utterly or partially destroyed within the Israeli bombardment, and the remaining ones have become shelters for the displaced households.”
He stated they’ve applied a brand new technique, referred to as an ‘Emergency Plan’, to make up for the training they’ve misses for 2 years.
“For the reason that ceasefire, Israel has restricted entry of college provides or stationery. College students can’t discover paper, pencils, notebooks, and even chalk. We’ve virtually 400 registered instructional factors – most of them are tents unfold throughout the Strip, for about 150,000 college students,” Shiekh-Khalil stated.
UNICEF’s Khalaf additionally stated they’re launching a back-to-learning programme to get Gaza’s youngsters resume their training and “ensure they don’t neglect what they’ve discovered earlier than”.
“We are able to’t wait to lose a complete technology,” he stated.
‘Traumatised youngsters’
Bahzad Al Akhras, a baby and adolescent psychiatrist in Gaza, advised Al Jazeera that shedding tutorial training for 2 years impacts youngsters’s cognitive, emotional, and social developments.
“Being away from faculty and having colleges as shelters impacts how youngsters understand the college as associated to crowdedness and harsh residing situations,” he stated. “A pupil won’t be able to develop cognitive features adequately when away from tutorial setting and the peer help.”
Al Akhras stated the genocidal conflict has impacted the youngsters of Gaza in a number of methods.
“The direct impression is seen in youngsters who had been trapped beneath the rubble, youngsters who sustained extreme accidents, orphaned youngsters, and people who had experiences with the Israeli troopers on the checkpoints. The oblique impression is seen within the collapse of the training system in addition to the continued hunger,” he stated.
The psychiatrist stated youngsters, not like adults, are unable to precise themselves verbally, usually displaying behavioral manifestations of trauma.
“Traumatised youngsters present signs of behavioral adjustments. They turn out to be remoted or hyperactive, disobedient, extra violent, or distracted, whereas some have issues with reminiscence or forgetting. Many need to cope with bed-wetting,” Al Akhras stated.
Omar is present process such a trauma. “He has begun to lose his hair. He doesn’t sleep properly at night time. He will get up usually, screaming of nightmares or feeling that he has his leg again, and feeling the ache of shedding a limb,” Yasmin advised Al Jazeera.
The Palestinian boy says he feels helpless.
“I undergo loads after I want to make use of the bathroom with one leg. It hurts loads. I can’t even carry a packet of greens. I fall down,” he says, hoping to get a prosthetic leg quickly.
“Very first thing I want to do after getting a prosthetic limb is to play soccer and swim within the sea. I like swimming.”
