Name: Gaza orphans marked unknown as war destroys families
Uploaded: 2023-12-13T03:46:49.810Z
Duration: 2 min 41 s
Description: Ten-year-old Razan Shabat does not know that her mother, father and siblings were killed in a Gaza strike which wounded her. She is one of a growing number of orphaned children in Gaza without any close relatives to care for them. This edit contains graphic images.

Ten-year-old Razan Shabat does not know that her mother, father and siblings were killed in a Gaza strike which wounded her. She is one of a growing number of orphaned children in Gaza without any close relatives to care for them. This edit contains graphic images. 

Sderot

The U.S-brokered ceasefire deal in Gaza is holding, after Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages.

Middle East Conflict

Gaza orphans marked 'unknown' as war destroys families

Sat on a Gaza hospital bed, 10-year-old Rezan Shabbat plays with her dolls. She doesn't yet know that the strike that wounded her also killed her mother, father, and two of her four siblings. Rezan is one of a growing number of children in Gaza who have been orphaned or, in some cases, lost their entire families in the war between Israel and Hamas. Many are now in the care of distant relatives, friends, or even strangers. Rezan, who is now being looked after by her uncle and his family, described the attack. Suddenly, the house next to us was hit by a strike. The rubble and a wall fell upon us, and we were injured. My relatives were stuck in Gaza, and I have two sisters in Rafah, and I'm in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. I had an operation on my leg. It was broken. And as you can see, in my forehead, there's a wound, and I had four operations in my skull. But thank God, I'm good, and thank God, I'm getting better. For the wound in my forehead, God willing, God will help me be transferred out of Gaza, and I will have cosmetic surgery and will have my leg treated. A Gazan doctor told Reuters that Rezan and many other children have been brought to the hospital alone. Like others, she was marked as unknown for days. UNICEF's chief spokesperson James Elder said it's difficult to know exactly how many children have been orphaned by the conflict. They lost their mother and their father and grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, everyone. So I've had these families where, you know, there's a caregiver, but they only know the child from a neighborhood. This speaks to, I think, the intensity of this conflict and certainly the disregard that it's having for children. Rezan shared what she longed for most while in hospital. I miss my family. I miss seeing them, she says. The war was triggered by a Hamas militant attack on southern Israel on October 7, when 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken to Gaza and held hostage. Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel responded with a military onslaught and total siege of the densely populated Gaza Strip. According to Gaza's health ministry, more than 18,000 people have been killed, most of them women and children.

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Middle East Conflict