About 21,000 children in Gaza are still missing as they are buried under the debris, detained, buried in unknown graves, or separated from their families due to the continuous conflict, Save the Children said.
“Given the current circumstances in the Gaza strip, it is almost impossible to obtain the facts and data,” the group concluded. They opine that there are more than seventeen thousand children who are separated and unaccompanied. In comparison, about four thousand children are believed to have been laid under the debris, and other unidentified children are buried in large graves.
As of October 7, more than 14,000 children have died through the Israeli attack on Gaza; this was made known by the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Others are permanently severely malnourished and are too weak even to attempt crying, thus depicting the catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
This is a clear testimony of the violence that has trailed the Gaza region since October, a situation which has led to over 37,000 deaths, including thousands of children, according to Save the Children’s report. This came after Palestinian armed groups in Israel carried out an attack that led to the killing of more than a thousand people, most of who are civilians; at least 33 of them were children.
Also, the report draws the reader’s attention to the fact that on June 9, about 250 Palestinian children were reported missing in the occupied West Bank.
Members of Save the Children, its regional director of Middle East and Eastern Europe, Jeremy Stoner, have urged for proper investigation of the missing children of the Gaza Strip as well as the proper accountability for the situation in this part of the world.
“Families are tortured by the uncertainty of their loved ones’ whereabouts,” The tortured town and its residents woke up one day with no hope of their loved ones, and everyone is on the verge of losing their loved one to this brutal war; “no parent should have to dig through rubble or mass graves to find their child’s body,” No child should be alone, unprotected in a war zone, or detained or held hostage Stoner stressed.
The child protection teams in the agency have indicated that fresh displacements over the last few days as a result of the offensive in Rafah meant more children had been separated from their families and communities, stressing the social structures. A minimum of at least 17,000 children in Palestine are out of school, and at least 12,000 of them are unaccompanied and separated.
Hence, based on the proportion of the killings that affected children, about 4,000 children could still be underneath the debris. Still, there could also be other children whose fate is unknown as they have been forcibly disappeared or abducted by the Israeli occupying forces and transported out of the Gaza Strip.
A Save the Children Child Protection Specialist said, “We see more and more unaccompanied children every day, and every day it gets more difficult to help them.” The organization identifies separated and unaccompanied children and tries to locate their families. However, there are no safe places in Gaza, and attacking continues and restricts Save the Children from reaching the communities, and families are forced to move frequently.
The situation in Gaza remains a humanitarian crisis. The ongoing conflict has led to the loss of thousands of children, some abandoned, others missing, and a lot more dead. It appeals to tracking the culprits involved in such an unfortunate scenario and, at the same time, underlines the importance of integrating such kids with their families and offering shelters.
