\n<\/p>\n
Carrying thermoses through the streets of Gaza City, Palestinian teenager Mohammed Ashour calls out to passersby, hoping they might buy a cup of his coffee.<\/p>\n
At 15, Mohammed should be in school with his peers, but since his father was killed in Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, he has been forced to abandon his education and shoulder responsibilities as the breadwinner for his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis burden isn\u2019t mine to carry,\u201d the coffee vendor tells Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work \u2013 carrying thermoses, cups, going back and forth? It\u2019s too much. I\u2019m exhausted, but I have to do it to support my siblings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mohammed is one of a growing number of Palestinian children in Gaza who have been forced into work as a result of Israel\u2019s war.<\/p>\n
With at least 39,000 children having lost one or both parents in the war, and the enclave\u2019s economy devastated by the conflict, children as young as eight have been pushed into work for their families\u2019 survival \u2013 losing not only their education, but their childhoods.<\/p>\n
Mohammed\u2019s mother, Atad Ashour, says she knows her son should be in school, but that they have no alternative.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter his father was killed, we were left with no income at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said Mohammed\u2019s older brothers were unable to find jobs, and she was unable to provide the family with anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still a child, but he\u2019s carrying a responsibility that isn\u2019t his,\u201d she said. \u201cThe circumstances pushed us into this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aid agencies in Gaza say children have borne the brunt of the war, forcing them into additional responsibilities that would normally be the domain of adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing more children scavenging through waste, looking for pieces of scrap or firewood to sell, children selling coffee,\u201d said UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram.<\/p>\n
She said the organisation was working with partners \u201cto do everything we can to try and stop these negative coping mechanisms, including giving families cash assistance, educating them about the risks of child labour and trying to help families resume employment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Rachel Cummings, Gaza humanitarian director for Save the Children, said the family breakdown caused by the war was also driving children into roles caring for siblings or older family members.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole family structure has been disrupted in Gaza and children are very vulnerable,\u201d she said. \u201cThis very precarious situation is really taking its toll.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statistics paint a bleak picture of the effect of the war on children in Gaza, where nearly half the population is under 18.<\/p>\n
More than 660,000 children are out of formal education, while an estimated 132,000 face the risk of acute malnutrition, according to Save the Children.<\/p>\n
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera\u2019s Hind Khoudary said the loss of parental breadwinners, in particular, had forced Gaza\u2019s children into doing tasks \u201cthat they were not supposed to be doing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were supposed to be in school, playing with their friends,\u201d she said. \u201cThe war\u2019s toll on Palestinian children has been massive.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he walks home at the end of another long day earning money for his family, Mohammed walks past a school, wishing he were still a student.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my father were alive, you would find me at home going to school,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Carrying thermoses through the streets of Gaza City, Palestinian teenager Mohammed Ashour calls out to passersby, hoping they might buy a cup of his coffee. At 15, Mohammed should be in school with his peers, but since his father was killed in Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, he has been forced to abandon his education […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}