THE Save The Children organisation has confirmed that the number of children killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave nearly two years ago has now reached over 20,000.
In a statement on Monday the organisation reported that at least one child is killed every hour by Israeli forces, and that no fewer than 1,009 children under the age of one have been killed.
It added that 450 children have been born during the war but were killed before they even had the chance to grow up.
Earlier, the United Nations children’s organisation UNICEF confirmed that the war in Gaza has inflicted enormous losses on children, with at least 50,000 killed or injured, while many others face famine.
It added that more than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine conditions as they continue to be deprived of food, water, and medical aid, and no child will emerge from the terror of the bombardment without being affected by trauma.
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, revealed that nearly one million children in Gaza have been deprived of education and are suffering deep psychological crises because of the ongoing blockade and Israeli attacks.
In a previous post on the platform X, Lazzarini said there are at least 17,000 children who are unaccompanied or separated from their families.
On August 7th, the international human rights organisation Human Rights Watch warned that Israeli attacks on schools in Gaza will disrupt education for many years, as repairing and rebuilding them will require enormous resources and time, with severe negative consequences for children, parents, and teachers.
Displacement in Gaza is no longer a move from one place to another; it has become a closed loop of pain.
On roads filled with rubble and children’s tears, families are forced to make their way south, carrying fear and a few old blankets. But their destination offers no safety, only the wait for an unknown fate.
The sound of bombardment never leaves the background, and the sky is heavy with thick black smoke. With every step, the displaced look behind them, as if death is chasing them.
The Israeli occupation army never issued an official order to evacuate Gaza City completely. Instead, it chose a bloodier method: continuous bombardment, booby-trapped robots exploding in alleys, and incendiary bombs devouring tents.
Maher Abu Rizq, one of the displaced from al-Zaytoun neighbourhood, said: ‘We didn’t wait for an evacuation order, houses around us were collapsing.
‘Robots entered the small alley and exploded near my brother’s house. No one came out from under the rubble. After that, we carried our children and left.’
Displacement is no longer a humanitarian decision but a battle with exploitation. Renting a small truck to move a family costs more than 2,500 shekels, while the rent of one square metre of vacant land in al-Mawasi and Deir al-Balah is now 15 shekels per month.
Reem Awad, a widow displaced with her three children, said she’d spent all her remaining savings to flee south.
‘Then I was shocked to learn we had to pay rent for the land to pitch a tent. I had nothing left, so we stretched a piece of cloth by the roadside.
‘At night, we hear bombardments as if we are in the middle of a battlefield.’
An unforeseen consequence is that families are now returning from the south to the north.
Overcrowding, lack of basic facilities, and increasing attacks in so-called ‘safe areas’ have pushed many to go back.
Khaled Shubeir explained: ‘We thought the south would be safer, but it was a trap.
‘There we die of hunger and disease; here we die under bombardment. We chose to die between the walls of our ruined homes.’
Camps receiving the displaced have turned into forests of packed tents: no sufficient water, no sewerage systems, no medicine. Children sleep on the ground; diseases ravage their bodies.
Hala Mansour, a volunteer at a camp in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, said that the tents are so close together that a single shell could kill dozens at one time. ‘Even the thin fabric doesn’t protect from rain, sunlight, or shrapnel,’ she said. ‘Children fall sick with no medicine, and families wake up every night to the sound of explosions.’
Gaza’s healthcare system is at its worst ever, with hospitals collapsing under siege and Israeli attacks.
Dr Rami Zaarab explained: ‘We have thousands of injured daily, alongside hundreds suffering respiratory and skin diseases due to overcrowding.
‘We have no antibiotics, no disinfectants, even gauze and cotton are reused. Any additional wave of displacement will trigger an uncontrollable medical disaster.’
The war has destroyed economic life. Even displacement itself has become a black market: inflated prices for transport, blankets, even drinking water.
Mahmoud Jaber, a worker who lost his livelihood, said: ‘I used to be a taxi driver. Now I wander with my family, homeless. I saw traders selling a sack of flour at three times the price.
‘The displaced have become forced customers, while the occupation army leaves us to die between hunger and bombardment.’
Children are the ones paying the heaviest price in this cycle: no schools, no games, no safety. Some scribble remnants of stories in old notebooks, while living through unbearable horrors.
Sundus, a 10-year-old girl, dreams of just one night without the sound of explosions.
She said: ‘We’ve been deprived of everything, food, safety, water, shelter, education, and on top of that, we are bombed with rockets and missiles. We’ve been robbed of our childhood.’
Amid all this, one question remains: Where can Gazans go? Neither the north nor the south is safe, the sea is closed before them.
Displacement has become nothing more than a journey between two deaths, while staying behind is no less dangerous than leaving.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, the new academic year officially began on Monday after a one-week delay, but dozens of schools remained closed due to ongoing raids and incursions by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in towns and villages south of Jenin.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education had announced the delay last week, citing the financial crisis caused by Israel’s economic siege and the withholding of Palestinian tax revenues, which disrupted preparations for the school year.
Schools in Jerusalem were excluded from the postponement.
Around 46,000 Palestinian refugee children also returned to their classrooms in UNRWA-run schools.
Despite escalating violence and mass displacement, the agency said its schools remain a safe haven for children, offering both education and psychological support.
The Education Ministry inaugurated the 2025/2026 school year at Deir Jarir School, east of Ramallah, and later at Shalal al-Auja School in Jericho.
However, classes were suspended in nearly 48 schools in the Qabatiya district of Jenin due to IOF raids on the town and surrounding villages.
Education Minister Amjad Barham announced that the school year in affected areas would resume immediately once the raids end.
He also noted that schools in Tulkarem and Jenin have been forced to close completely amid the ongoing assault on refugee camps and neighbouring communities. Six UNRWA schools in Jerusalem have also been affected.
But Gaza’s education sector has suffered the heaviest toll. Out of 307 schools, 293 have been partially or completely destroyed in the Israeli genocide.
Despite the devastation, the Ministry launched the school year in Gaza virtually on Monday afternoon.
This came just two days after more than 26,000 high school students in Gaza began their final-year education online.