A year after Israel’s attack on Gaza, children there are still trying to recover from the consequences of the brutal assault on the Strip. The Israeli attack, which started on 8 July 2014, resulted in between 2,142 and 2,310 Gazans deaths. According to the Gaza Health Ministry and to the UN and human rights groups, 69-75 percent of the Palestinian casualties were civilians, many of them children.
The attack on Gaza left 547 children dead and close to 3,000 injured. According to the United Nations, the mental scars have been devastating. Children not only had to undergo direct attacks on them, but saw their siblings and parents gruesomely killed. It is estimated that 370,000 children have been left shell-shocked by the attack on their homes.
“The recent war surpassed the combined number of deaths and injuries from all previous conflicts, and the impact that is having on the children of Gaza and their future looks absolutely bleak. Adolescents here are at huge risk of losing hope and we face the danger of losing a whole generation of kids who decide they have nothing to lose and potentially get involved in militant activities,” said Ms. Pernille Ironside, head of UNICEF’s Gaza field office.