Eight months after being pulled from the bombed-out rubble of her Gaza home, 12-year-old Alma Jaarour still suffers from bouts of insomnia, anger and nightmares.
The only member of her immediate family to survive the Israeli strike that destroyed their Gaza City block, she lost her parents and siblings along with dozens of relatives who had been huddled together in the five-story building.
“I cry every second for the loss of my family,” said Alma, who is now being cared for by her aunt, Ola Jaarour. “I want a father, mother and siblings just like other children.”
Jaarour, who has six children of her own, said her traumatised niece still “blamed herself” because when her young brother was dragged from the ruins, his head severed from his body, she had been too scared to kiss him goodbye.
“War is unbearable for adults,” said Jaarour, “let alone a child who has lost her entire family.”
Alma is one of an estimated 19,000 children in Gaza to lose one or both of their parents during 10 months of bitter conflict and who are defined as orphans by organisations such as the UN children’s agency Unicef.
The multiple wars that have afflicted the Palestinian territory over the years have deprived many children of mothers and fathers, but aid officials say that nothing has been on the scale of the current Israeli onslaught.
Not only are there far more orphans than in previous conflicts, but the challenges are exponentially tougher this time. Relatives are ready to take in children who have lost their parents, but doing so is made much harder when these guardians — along with almost all Gazans — are destitute and living in tents and makeshift shelters.
The fighting still rages in Gaza, where the frequent Israeli evacuation orders can force thousands to leave an area at very short notice. The overwhelming majority of children are hungry, with or without parents, aid workers point out, and have little or no access to healthcare as they contend with the daily threats of death, injury and the loss of loved ones.
Tareq Emtairah, director-general of Taawon, a Palestinian NGO that has supported orphans from previous wars, said the needs this time were of a different order.
“At least in the past, the education and health infrastructure were intact,” he said. “Now the system is broken.”
He continued: “There are orphaned kids who have sustained major injuries. Some have faced major trauma and they don’t know where they are. To provide any kind of comfort to these children is quite difficult in the current situation.”
Kazem Abu Khalaf, spokesperson for Unicef, said his organisation was working to help Gaza’s orphans, but stressed that all children in the shattered strip needed help. “There are 625,000 who lost a school year,” he said.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s Gaza offensive, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel launched its assault on the enclave in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas militants that killed 1,200 people, according to government figures.
Alma and Ola have been living at a camp for orphaned children near Khan Younis set up by Mahmoud Kalakh, a teacher whose own struggle to find shelter for his family made him realise how difficult it was for families where the father had been killed.
His “orphan city”, which is funded by private donations, hosts 300 families and up to 1,300 children. It has a medical tent, football field and makeshift school where the children are taught Arabic, English and mathematics.
One block has been designated for children who are sole survivors of their immediate families, including seven teenagers who are completely on their own, said Kalakh. The camp organised games to take the children’s minds off their losses, he added, and a volunteer psychologist visits twice a week.
Yet despite Kalakh’s best efforts, he wishes he could do more. “About 800 families have signed up to a waiting list for a tent,” he said. “The great pain is that we can’t find a place for them.”
At the camp, Samar al-Jaja looks after four nephews and nieces whose parents and sister were killed when their house was bombed in October. The eldest, Mohamed, 22, is an epileptic who also has a mental disability. “I pushed him on a wheelchair when we moved south and was afraid Israeli soldiers would shoot him if he made one of his uncontrolled movements,” said Jaja.
Ahmed al-Khodary, 24, took responsibility for his sister and three brothers after their parents were killed when an Israeli strike destroyed their home. His sister Misk was wounded in the bombing and has spent time in intensive care recovering from head injuries. A brother, Abdel Rahman, also lost a leg when the hospital where he had taken refuge was attacked.
Khodary said he had brought forward his wedding so his fiancée could move into their tent to help care for Misk, who “gets convulsions and severe bouts of anger and crying”. He described feeling “crushed” when he was unable to provide Misk with the grilled chicken she wanted to eat because he had no money.
“My siblings have become my children,” Khodary said. “All I want is for them to be happy and well.”
UN agencies and other humanitarian groups insist that a ceasefire is crucial if they are to start addressing the massive needs of young Gazans, including those without parents. “All children in Gaza need psychosocial support,” said Unicef’s Abu Khalaf.
But even this is unlikely to alleviate the plight of Gaza’s orphans. “The future for these children looks extremely bleak,” said Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children International.
“The sheer scale of children who have lost family, who have lost extended family, who have lost their parents, is so massive that it’s incomprehensible how society is going to be able to grapple with this.”