Gaza Herald _In the heart of Gaza City, where entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, a nine-year-old girl is trying to piece together a life forever changed. Her story reflects the unimaginable suffering endured by Gaza’s children, surviving Israeli bombardment, life-altering injuries, and the devastating loss of family, home, and safety.
A Child Pulled From the Fire
The last memory Elham Abu Hajjaj holds from the night her world collapsed is her mother clutching her tightly as explosions shook their home. When she later regained consciousness in a hospital bed, her body was covered in severe burns and her hands trembled uncontrollably. She recalls touching her skin and realizing it was burned from head to toe.
Confused and terrified, she asked the doctor about her parents. He had no answer to give. Both her mother and father had been killed in the Israeli strike on the al-Saffaweh neighborhood, leaving Elham orphaned and critically injured.
Doctors say she suffered third-degree burns , injuries that will affect her for the rest of her life. According to medical estimates, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have suffered life-changing injuries since the war began, and thousands of children have endured major burns caused by Israeli airstrikes. A significant portion of those requiring burn surgeries are very young children, many under the age of five.
Living With Loss in a City of Ruins
Elham struggles daily with the emotional and physical scars. When she looks in the mirror, she barely recognizes herself, whispering prayers as she examines the wounds along her neck, arm, and leg. Still, the grief of losing her parents weighs heavier than the pain.
For a long time, she convinced herself they were alive , clinging to the possibility through the haze of trauma. Only when her grandfather brought her to live with him did reality settle in. “I realized my father and mother had died, and I cried so much,” she said.
Her situation is heartbreakingly common. More than 39,000 Palestinian children in Gaza have lost one or both parents, with 17,000 becoming completely orphaned since October 2023. Elham now lives with her grandparents, her aunt, and her brother , the small circle of family she has left. Amid the devastation of their neighborhood, she describes feeling a spark of joy when she saw her brother alive. “My heart was still sad, but I felt a little happiness because he survived,” she said.
Drawing a Future From the Ashes
To cope with her trauma, Elham has turned to drawing. Her artwork has become a space where she can process grief and imagine a future untouched by war.
“It helps me forget everything that happened,” she said softly. Her latest drawing was of her destroyed home, but in her picture, she had rebuilt it. She added a swing. A tree. A place that feels whole again.
“I drew the tree,” she said, “because my father planted one.”
Elham’s story is just one among thousands in Gaza, yet it embodies the resilience and heartbreak of a generation forced to grow up in the ruins of war. As she draws the home she lost and the memories she longs to protect, she continues to rebuild , one picture, one breath, one day at a time. Her survival is not just a personal triumph; it is a testament to the unbroken spirit of Gaza’s children.
