Gaza Herald_ Dozens of Palestinian children in Gaza marked World Children’s Day on Thursday by showcasing their paintings atop the rubble of destroyed homes in Khan Younis, reflecting the harsh realities they endured during the two-year Israeli assault.
The exhibition, organized by the Palestine Children’s Council with support from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, coincided with the annual November 20 observance. Through their artwork, the children depicted lost homes, disrupted lives, and the rights stripped from them during the prolonged Israeli military campaign.
During the event, girls dressed in traditional Palestinian attire performed a song with lyrics stating: “O world, my land is burned… the land of freedom is stolen,” expressing the ongoing trauma experienced by Gaza’s youngest residents.
Abdel Halim Abu Samra, training director at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said the exhibit was a way for the children to reflect on the systematic destruction that touched every aspect of life in Gaza, leaving its people, homes, and natural environment scarred. He noted that children’s rights to education, healthcare, food, and safe living conditions had been severely violated throughout the two-year conflict.
Yareen Abu al-Naja, mother of one of the participants, told Anadolu that Gaza’s children “spent the past two years seeing body parts instead of cartoons and smelling blood instead of flowers. All normal life vanished.”
Fatima al-Tabesh, one of the children, recounted her own suffering during the war: “For over a month, we were extremely hungry, and nighttime terrified us because of the constant shelling.”
On the same day, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted on X that “after two years of violence, Gaza’s children are finally breathing moments of quiet.” He said the fragile ceasefire that began on October 10 allows children a chance to play, connect, and begin healing, though he cautioned that the trauma, injuries, and shattered childhoods will take far longer to recover.
Since October 2023, the Israeli military campaign has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, injured over 170,800, and left the densely populated enclave in ruins.
