General

19 thousand orphans in Gaza due to aggression

Gaza – Ma’an – UNICEF spokesman Kazem Abu Khalaf revealed on Saturday the details of the suffering of children who lost their parents in the Gaza Strip.

He explained that the issue of orphaned children is called “unaccompanied children” because of the horrors of the aggression, whether the father is in the south and the son remains with his mother in the north, or vice versa, or his parents were martyred during the war.

According to the organization’s official website, the spokesman indicated that “the number of unaccompanied children in Gaza is a purely estimated number, because we cannot accurately count the numbers.”

He added, from our experience as an organization working in war and conflict zones around the world, 1% of the total number are unaccompanied children, whose parents may be alive or orphans.

Abu Khalaf confirmed that there are 1.9 million displaced people in Gaza, and therefore, the estimated number is 19,000 unaccompanied children who may be orphans or whose parents have been separated fr
om them by war.

He noted that these numbers are estimates and are measured by experience and conflict areas, and are less than 1% of the total number of displaced persons.

It is worth noting that in cases where there is no family reunification, or the child has become an orphan, there is the extended family, whether cousins, maternal uncles, grandmothers or grandfathers, who take care of the children and provide care until things improve, and support is provided to them.

Source: Maan News Agency