A Lost Generation

Gaza has turned into a graveyard of childhood wherein children are suffering the brutal cost of a war they never chose

- RAJDEEP PATHAK

The relentless conflict in Gaza has plunged its children into an unimaginable abyss of suffering, marking the territory as arguably the deadliest place in the world for a child. Latest reports paint a grim picture of widespread death, injury, malnutrition, and the systematic dismantling of essential infrastructure, threatening to create a lost generation unless the unending cycle of violence is brought to an immediate halt.

The war, which erupted after Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has spiraled into a relentless military campaign that has obliterated much of Gaza's civilian infrastructure. While the political arguments rage on, the reality on the ground is a silent scream – the broken lives of children who neither chose the battlefield nor have any means to escape it.

The scale of the catastrophe is staggering. More than 13,000 children have been killed, and an estimated 25,000 injured, while at least 25,000 have been hospitalized for malnutrition, according to various UN agencies and media reports.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that out of 40,717 Palestinian bodies identified in Gaza, a third – 13,319 – were children. Britain's deputy U.N. ambassador, James Kariuki, starkly stated that "Gaza has become the deadliest place in the world to be a child," adding "the children of Gaza did not choose this war, yet they have paid the ultimate price."

The devastating toll extends beyond immediate casualties. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) revealed in March 2024 that more children have been killed in Gaza in just over four months than in four years of conflict worldwide between 2019 and 2022.