Children in Gaza ‘taking on responsibilities they shouldn’t have to’
Nour Sharaf, an emergency doctor, has given more details on her time volunteering in Gaza.
She recounted the case of a seven-year-old boy who had been shot while trying to retrieve water for his family. The child, who ventured out without his parents asking him to, simply wanted to help provide for them, she said, but “unfortunately, in the process, he got shot in the head”.
His case speaks to the psychological toll the war is taking on children, Sharaf said.
“They are meant to grow up in a world where they’re playing, they’re learning, they’re growing, but instead, they’re worried about whether or not they’re going to have something to eat at night or whether they’re going to be able to go home to their mom and dad.”
“They’re taking on responsibilities they shouldn’t have to take on,” she said.
Palestinians distraught over relatives missing at deadly Gaza aid sites
As Israel’s forced starvation tightens its grip on Gaza’s entire population, an increasing number of Palestinian families are frantically searching for news of relatives who undertook perilous journeys to get food from aid distribution points, never to return.
Khaled Obaid has been searching for his beloved son, Ahmed, for two months, scanning every passing vehicle on the coastal road in Deir-el-Balah, hoping against all odds that one of them might bring him home.
The boy had left the displaced family’s tent in the central town to find food for his parents and sister, who had lost her husband during the war, and headed to the Zikim crossing point, where aid trucks enter northern Gaza.
“He hasn’t returned until now. He went because he was hungry. We have nothing to eat,” the distraught father told Al Jazeera, breaking down in tears with his wife under the blue tarpaulin where they are sheltering.
Palestinians rush to get aid supplies in Khan Younis
Palestinians climb onto trucks as they seek aid supplies in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, August 4
