The ongoing crisis has deeply affected children in Gaza. For almost 2 years, they have faced displacement, loss, starvation and been forced to live through horrific violence.
For tens of thousands of children, these dire conditions are made even worse by the loss of their parents.
Noor is 17 years old and is 1 of the many children who has been robbed of a childhood, of an education and of her loved ones.
A good life in Gaza ruined by Israeli bombs
Noor lived with her family in Al-Shejaiea, 1 of the largest neighbourhoods in Gaza. The family lived a simple life, surrounded by farmland and trees, Noor’s 2 older sisters attended university, while she and her other siblings all attended school.
Every day at noon, the family would return home from their schools, universities and work, to gather around the table for lunch.
Summaya, Noor’s mother, describes their life together:
“We were a close family before the war. We lived in a very nice house.
“We had a land, a farm, we used to grow vegetables. My husband used to grow tomatoes. Me and the kids used to help him every day. It provided for the children and the house expenses.”
When the bombs began to fall, Noor and her family fled while her father stayed behind to protect the house and his crops. He was killed by Israeli bombs a week later.
“He called me 3 days before his death,” Sumayya says.
“He checked on the children, his mother and me. SubhanAllah, coincidentally it was like he was giving me his final words.
“’Forgive me and look after the children.’”
After the death of her father, Noor and her family began an exhausting journey, moving from shelter to shelter as the bombs continued to fall around them. They fled south, moving from Rafah to Khan Younis, and then to the Middle governorate, all the while carrying a simple tent with them for shelter.
Children forced to face nightmare conditions in Gaza Strip
The total death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 65,000. Tens of thousands of Palestinian children have been robbed of their parents.
Children like Noor have been forced to live through horrifying conditions, confronted with trauma no one should experience.
Noor and her siblings have been forced to live through famine, queuing at charity kitchens just to get a small portion of lentils or pasta, barely enough to prevent starvation.
The children are also missing out on education. There is a single mobile phone in the family, meaning they must take it in turns to complete their online lessons and exams. Poor internet connection and electricity outages only makes the situation worse.
After months of displacement, moving from town to town, Noor experienced more trauma when her siblings, Nada and Mohamed, along with their cousins, went to collect wood and experienced a direct missile strike.
“Nada saw the rocket coming down on top of them,” Sumayya said.
“May Allah have mercy on their souls; they bought the 3 of them to me. We carried him [Mohamed] with our hands to the hospital.
Mohamed and two cousins were killed. Nada was left traumatised.
“I wanted my scream to reach the whole world.” Sumayya said.
Noor was once a child who loved to play and dreamed of the future, she was looking forward to attending university, but displacement, fear, and the loss of loved ones have completely changed her life.
“I would like to study and continue forward with my life,” Noor tells us.
“I would like to finish my secondary education so I can get to higher education. I would like for a lot of things to be available to me so I can carry on with my education and become a medical secretary.
“I would like for my life to be better than this.”
You can help orphan children like Noor
Their situation may feel hopeless, but, with your help, Islamic Relief can do more to help children like Noor.
For almost 3 decades, Islamic Relief has been supporting orphaned children in Gaza through one-to-one sponsorship. The Israeli blockade means that much aid is restricted, but our Orphan Sponsorship Programme is now one of the few remaining ways to get real support into the hands of suffering Palestinian families.
Noor’s younger sister, Nada, is enrolled on our Orphan Sponsorship Programme. The regular stipend gives their mother the means to buy food and other essentials for the family, when goods are available.
“I would like to thank Islamic Relief.” Noor says, “because they support our needs a lot. They provide us with everything. Thank you, Islamic Relief.”
Support orphaned Palestinian children
With many children in dire need as conditions in Gaza continue to deteriorate, generous sponsors are eager to help more than one child in a family – so we now offer the option to sponsor multiple children in a family.
Gaza’s rising death tolls means more children than ever are becoming orphaned. Heartbreakingly, more than 7,300 orphaned children are now in our system, waiting to be matched with sponsors.
With Islamic Relief there are 3 ways you can help Palestinian orphans struggling to survive:
- Support a child through one-to-one sponsorship
- Sponsor multiple children from the same family
- Donate to the General Orphans Fund.
Find out more about how you can be a lifeline for Gaza’s orphans and act today – Palestinian children need your help now.
