'Stolen childhood': How Gaza minors are forced to labour for survival

Sameer Hasoonah and Yazan Shinger became friends at the workplace. But they should not have been there in the first place.

At 14 and 11 years of age, respectively, they are supposed to be at school or the playground, enjoying their childhood like others in their age group elsewhere in the world.

But in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, children don’t have the luxury of a normal childhood.

More so since Israel launched a scorched-earth military campaign in Gaza in October, killing over 32,000 people, more than 13,000 of them children till now, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

As the world marked Palestinian Children’s Day – an annual event on April 5 in solidarity with minors in Gaza and other occupied territories – the irony was not lost on Sameer and Yazan as they went about their daily routine.

They cut down trees wherever they can find them, collect the wood, and sell it as firewood at a makeshift stall in Deir al-Balah, where Sameer lives with his parents in a tent.

“We earn less than $30 a day…I am badly sunburnt due to working long hours in the open. I work for little to nothing. …Even though my younger siblings also work, we barely cover 10 percent of daily needs,” Sameer tells TRT World.

“Before the war, I used to always have my favourite shawarma sandwich, but now we can’t afford it. Our childhood is stolen,” adds the youngster, who shares the tent with 14 other family members.

Yazan – who lives with his parents and five siblings – chokes as he describes the hardships they are facing.

“Since the beginning of Ramadan, we only had stale bread with little canned tuna for Suhoor. Meanwhile, we go to a nearby Takia (soup kitchen) to bring a plate of food for iftar,” he tells TRT World.

Sameer and Yazan’s skinny frames and exhausted faces betray the hardships they have been facing. Their clothes are old and torn and they work barefoot for lack of proper footwear.

Bombs and bullets

Life has been a struggle for Gaza residents for long, constantly facing atrocities by Israeli soldiers.

But nothing had prepared them for what unfolded since the October 7 cross-border operations by the Hamas resistance.

Forced to flee their homes at the Al-Buraij Refugee Camp and Al-Moghraga area in the middle of Gaza, Sameer and Yazan’s families sought refuge at Deir al-Balah, a palm-lined coastal city in south Gaza.

Once home to around 25,000 people, now it shelters more than half a million — most of them displaced from other areas in Gaza.

But Israel brought the war to Deir al-Balah, too–as bombs and bullets rained down on civilians on the streets, in their makeshift tents and even in hospitals.

The work sector in Gaza, which mostly comprises freelancers and daily wage earners, collapsed completely, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without an income source.

The death of earning members forced many families to involve their children in work.

“We’ve lost our stone factory and our house. That was my main source of income. Now, it’s getting worse and harder,” says Mohammed, Sameer’s father.

“I never wanted to put him to work, but my earnings are insufficient to feed the whole family. I know it is hard for him, but we have no other choice,” he tells TRT World.

Yazan’s father Rami says that the death of his brothers and other adult members has hit the family’s earnings very hard.

“It does feel wrong that he works because he’s never done so before…I hope the war ends so that I can see him with a backpack (to school) very soon. No father loves seeing his children this way.”

But even 12 hours of backbreaking work doesn’t provide Sameer and Yazan enough.

“After the evening prayers, we go out in the dark to buy snacks. We look at our pockets and see what we’ve saved. We barely buy one packet of biscuits and share it,” says Sameer.

“We fancy a packet of noodles, but it’s really unaffordable. Our dads used to give us money to buy whatever we fancied. Now, they’re unable to provide food for us.”

Yazan reveals that they hang out in the evening and sometimes play hide-and-seek with common friends.

They part ways for the night at around 8 pm, hoping to meet again the next day as Israeli drones buzz overhead, seeking the next target to bomb.

“I miss my schoolmates with whom I used to spend most of my time and play with. I miss my books, my pencils, and my teachers. Now, my teachers are killed, my school is destroyed, and I don’t have a house,”

“All I dream of now is going back home and playing marbles and street football with my friends,” he adds.

‘Fragile and traumatised’

Health experts and rights activists have been warning about the long-term physical and psychological scars the ongoing war could have on children exposed to so much violence.

“Losing their families, seeing their homes demolished, and taking unbearable responsibilities are all reasons why these children will need years of mental aid to heal,” American-Palestinian psychotherapist Vivian AbouAllol tells TRT World.

“There’s nothing that falls under the meaning of childhood. It’s all suffering and horror. They’re even deprived of their most basic rights, including food and water. Moreover, their physical health is deteriorating due to starvation and malnutrition.”

Oday Al-Nabahin, 14, now lives at a camp in Deir al-Balah after Israeli forces bulldozed his house at the Al-Buraij Refugee Camp three months ago.

After desperately looking for but failing to find work to supplement his family’s income, Oday finally decided to sell his school books to earn whatever he could.

He also tries to collect and sell firewood, but his efforts earn him as little as $5, barely enough to bring home a few cans of peas and beans to eat with his family.

The demand for firewood has shot up across Gaza due to the unavailability of cooking gas, with Israel severely restricting supplies since the start of the war.

“Our life is just suffering. We have neither food nor water. We spend hours queuing up to get some water and a plate of food from a nearby centre providing free food to the needy,” he tells TRT World.

“I used to play football with my friends, spend some time with my family, and bring all the snacks I love. I just want my life to return to what it was before October 7. I miss it so much.”

Mustafa Abu-Zir, Palestinian psychotherapist and founder of the NGO Healing4All, says that children in Gaza are fragile and traumatised and also the worst sufferers in the ongoing war.

“Even before October 7, the statistics on mental illnesses among children exceeded 70 percent due to the Israeli siege of Gaza and previous assaults on the enclave in the past years,” Zir tells TRT World.

“Now, with this level of physical and mental torture, every child and adult in Gaza is in desperate need of mental support…We’re really facing the biggest mental health crisis ever in Gaza.”