WORDS BY ANTONIA XU 

More than a year has passed since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, yet the war shows no signs of abating. 

While the political and military stalemate continues, it is Gaza’s children who are paying the highest price.

In all conflicts, children are highly vulnerable. The devastating impact of this conflict is particularly evident in Gaza, where children are caught in the crossfire of relentless violence. 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is reporting most of the deaths have been women and children. 

The 40,000 deaths total was marked in August this year. 

Juliette Touma, Director of Communications for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), shared the unimaginable suffering faced by children and civilians during an interview at the outset of the conflict last year.

“UNRWA is hosting nearly half a million people in our shelters. They are all in our schools, they are in medical facilities, they are in warehouses that the agency manages on the ground,” Touma said.

“Among them are many, many children and many women - everybody has lots of needs,” she said. 

“We are stretched. The centres are overcrowded, and the sanitation conditions are really, really bad.”

Touma further expressed concern over the dwindling water supplies.

“There are two million people in the Gaza Strip, and water is running out for people in the Gaza strip, for civilians,” she said.

“It is very important that UNRWA is allowed to bring in fuel, because the fuel will allow the agency to restart the water pumping stations and other stations, and with that there will be availability of water for two million people in Gaza.”

These conditions underscore how deeply Gaza's infrastructure has been crippled by the war, leaving civilians to suffer in overcrowded shelters with limited access to basic necessities. 

The humanitarian crisis continues to escalate as children, who should be attending school and enjoying their childhoods, are instead unable to spend time in the classroom. 

A report by Save the Children estimates that more than 10 children a day are suffering from life-altering injuries, including amputations, on average. 

The World Health Organisation said only about a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still able to function. 

“This war is a war on children,” said Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, in a post on X (formerly Twitter). 

“It is a war on their childhood and their future.”

For families living close to the conflict, survival is a daily ordeal. One such story of survival is that of a father of two from Nahal Oz, near the Gaza border, who has asked to remain anonymous. 

He told MOJO News via social media that his family narrowly escaped the October 7th attack, but his children were left traumatised.

“We realise we are in a horror movie and we are going to be a leading act,” he said.

His children clung to him in fear as the terrifying events unfolded. "In the next couple of hours we will hear screams in Arabic. We hear the sounds of small firearms being fired at close range,” he said. 

“The horrific news that keeps piling up is hard to bear.”

The trauma that families face is compounded by the sheer scale of destruction and loss of life. 

The consequences of this war extend far beyond immediate physical harm. The recent detection of polio in Gaza’s sewage has added yet another layer of risk for children, particularly those under five who are most vulnerable. 

With vaccination programs disrupted and sanitation systems collapsing, the risk of a widespread health crisis looms large. Public health officials are sounding the alarm, with reports a ten-month old baby has polio and is not vaccinated against the disease. 

This war has altered the future of Gaza’s children, both physically and psychologically.