Palestinian child goes to collect bread but is killed instead by Israel

In Gaza, childhood is a brief and bitter dream.

Nine-year-old Zeina Al-Ghoul was one of those children, sent to fetch bread from a ration centre in the al-Shati refugee camp. It was supposed to be a quick and ordinary errand. But as she stood in line on October 27 with her father at a UN-run school, an Israeli airstrike struck. Zeina was killed instantly.

Her father survived but remains in critical condition, one of eight Palestinians killed in the camp that day, including three journalists.

“I feel so sick—children killed in front of me by Israeli rockets,” says Yousri Al-Ghoul, Zeina’s cousin and a Palestinian poet. He speaks of Zeina with both grief and terrible clarity, as if his words are the only tools left to process the relentless destruction.

Zeina, like many others, had sought refuge in that school, clinging to whatever shelter was left in a city besieged by bombs. Streets that were once alive with families are now ghostly witnesses to lives interrupted.

“A kid in Gaza is not a kid anymore,” Sara tells TRT World, her words carrying the weight of experience. She’s been forced from her home four times now, most recently fleeing from northern Gaza to the south. The essentials of life here are scarce—food, water, safety—each tightly rationed and tenuously held.

“The food they provide is so limited,” she explains. “When you hold out a plate, they give you only enough to meet your own needs. Every family member has to go and get their own food.” Families have adapted, sending children to collect food and water from aid depots, the harsh arithmetic of survival leaving mothers at makeshift shelters.

Childhood here is a vanishing idea, stripped bare by the necessities of war. “There’s no education, no medicine, no healthcare, no steady food supply,” Sara says, listing the absent supports as if reciting a litany. “They’re even working to earn money—50% of the kids are working now.”

She describes young boys, barely able to control the horses and donkeys they ride through the streets, seeking out a living with tasks far too heavy for small hands.

“To the international community: your silence is complicity,” Yousri says, his words aimed at the broader world, a plea and a condemnation all at once.

The Israeli military’s onslaught to push Palestinians from northern Gaza is relentless. Schools meant to shelter refugees are raided, and the people within them are forced out again.

“I was displaced from al-Shati to Jabalia, moving within the north,” Yousri explains, “only for Israel to begin its siege on al-Shati, where my family stayed.”

Against the tide of destruction, he voices defiance. “I returned to encourage others to stay. Israel’s plans will fail, and we will achieve our freedom.”

For now, though, Gaza’s children live a fragile existence. Childhood here has been forfeited to survival, and survival, in Gaza, demands everything.

Region in need of relief

The conditions in northern Gaza are nothing short of catastrophic. Air strikes, ground assaults, and the blockade have left people with little to survive on, as humanitarian corridors remain closed. No food has arrived since early October.

On October 26, Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, trapping patients and medical staff without food or water.

Joyce Msuya, the UN’s humanitarian aid chief, has described the dire state of occupied Gaza, stating that “hospitals have been hit, and health workers have been detained.”

The World Health Organization warns of a “catastrophic” health crisis, with hospitals overwhelmed by shelling and overcrowding. Without essential supplies, preventable deaths increase, and health conditions worsen.

The blockade has also suspended critical public health initiatives, such as a polio vaccination campaign, raising fears of disease outbreaks.

The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, expressed horror at the “devastating levels of death and destruction” targeting healthcare facilities and civilians alike.

Campaign of displacement

Yousri believes that the violence in northern Gaza is part of a deliberate Israeli effort to force Palestinians from their land.

In September, former Israeli general Giora Eiland called for a “starvation” strategy to displace the population of northern Gaza.

Though unofficial, the impact of such measures is increasingly evident. Israeli checkpoints restrict movement, preventing people from finding safety. Even those who try to flee risk death en route.

For many Palestinians, leaving isn’t an option; they fear they’ll never return if they do. Yousri and others remain resolved to stay, to resist forced displacement, even as conditions grow ever more dangerous.

Gaza’s people endure under siege, their lives reduced to survival amid relentless attacks. Yousri calls on the world to act.

“It is time to act, to support, to demand an end to the killing,” he concludes.