Children in Gaza chase after trucks loaded with rubble to support their families

Childhood in the Gaza Strip is a tragic reality. The recent Israeli war has exacerbated the already dire situation, making children direct victims of the destruction and the loss of basic necessities.

With the ongoing siege, the lack of reconstruction, and the continued closure of border crossings, the health, educational, and social suffering of children is worsening. The urgent need for international intervention to protect an entire generation from a lost childhood remains paramount.

In this context, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, Shadi Shamia, observed dozens of children lining the sides of devastated roads, watching trucks loaded with rubble and debris pass by, searching for a source of income to support their families. They face daily dangers amidst the speeding trucks and piles of wreckage.

In light of this bleak scene, hope for life and education remains elusive. The destruction of most of the Strip’s schools by the Israeli occupation has deprived children of education, forcing them to focus solely on survival.

For her part, Al Jazeera correspondent Nour Khaled pointed out that children have paid the heaviest price for the war, being deprived of education for the third consecutive year. She highlighted the tragic reality of displaced people at the Al-Daraj School in eastern Gaza City.

The loss of schools and their conversion into shelters for displaced people is part of the crisis. Children have been deprived of regular in-person education, and many have been forced to work to support their families, raising the child labor rate to more than 80% compared to pre-war levels.

The correspondent added that these children also live in unsanitary conditions, with hospitals overflowing with children suffering from various illnesses due to the dire living conditions.

According to UN data, 660,000 children are out of school, and more than 50,000 children have been killed or injured since the start of the war until mid-2025. In addition, approximately 1,500 children are awaiting treatment abroad due to a lack of medical resources.

For his part, Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network, confirmed that this phenomenon is widespread throughout the Gaza Strip, where children are forced to collect food, firewood, and plastic from garbage dumps and aid trucks, amidst shortages of water and hygiene supplies and widespread malnutrition.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, al-Shawa pointed out that children are the most affected by this humanitarian catastrophe, noting that they are the first to contract diseases and epidemics.

Children, who constitute 47% of the Gaza Strip’s population, are among the most affected by the Israeli war of annihilation, which has left more than 72,000 Palestinians dead and over 171,000 wounded, in addition to causing massive destruction of infrastructure.

Furthermore, approximately 1.9 million displaced people, out of a total population of 2.4 million in the Gaza Strip, are living in dire conditions in dilapidated tents lacking the most basic necessities, after Israel destroyed their homes during the war.

On November 13, 2025, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report that 93% of Gaza’s children were exhibiting “aggressive behavior” due to the war and the collapse of basic services.