Jabalia, Gaza<\/strong> \u2013 Omar Halawa got up from his chair, like any 13-year-old child would. But he\u00a0had forgotten a devastating detail about himself: he only had one leg.<\/p>\n \u201cHe fell off the chair,\u201d his mother Yasmin Halawa told Al Jazeera. \u201cIt is very sad for us all, seeing him like that.\u201d<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Omar lost his right leg three months ago. On October 1, 2025, as Israel intensified its ground invasion of Gaza amid ceasefire talks with Hamas, Omar was on the street with his 11-year-old sister Layan, cousin Moath Halawa, 13, and friend Mohammed Al Siksik, also 13, to get water from a tanker that had come near their camp in north Gaza\u2019s Jabalia area.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was impossible to pay 6000 shekels for a vehicle to get us to the south, so we had decided to stay in the north,\u201d recalled Yasmin, adding that the family had been displaced more than 15 times during the Israeli genocidal war that began in October 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cThe drinking water supply became very rare in the area, so the children of the camp decided to get up just after dawn to be able to get in line for a gallon of water. Moments later, the shelling started and we felt afraid for our children, Layan and Omar,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As she reeled from doubts over sending the children to get water, they heard someone shouting that Omar had been hit by the shelling.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing he asked when he woke up after surgery was about his friend and cousin who were in line with him for water,\u201d said Yasmin. \u201cThey were both killed.\u201d<\/p>\n The family buried Omar\u2019s amputated leg near their tent. He visits the grave every day. \u201cMy leg went to heaven before me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Omar had been grappling with deaths and destructions as soon as the war started. In November 2023, as Israel bombed northern Gaza, Layan was injured by shattered glass of the windows all around their house.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a horrific night, we left the house raising a white piece of cloth so that the Israeli soldiers don\u2019t shoot at us, holding Hatem between my arms and walking with Omar and Layan by my side. On the way out, they saw the beheaded body of their eight-year-old cousin along with other martyrs. They froze in horror and started screaming and crying,\u201d said Yasmin. Hatem is four.<\/p>\n \u201cMy children have been emotionally disturbed after that experience. Layan struggled with bedwetting and Omar is afraid all the time, even from the sound of a chair hitting the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n Omar and Layal are among tens of thousands of children in Gaza bearing the scars of a brutal genocide that has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians, 20,000 of them children. Nearly 42,000 other children have been injured, half of them sustaining life-altering injuries, as the Israeli attacks continue in violation of a United States-brokered ceasefire. At least 39,000 children in Gaza are now left without one or both parents \u2013 the largest orphan crisis in modern history.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of enjoying their childhood, Palestinian children are living in the worst place in the world for children. Even after the agreed ceasefire, more than 95 children have been killed,\u201d UNICEF spokesperson Kazem Abu Khalaf told Al Jazeera, adding that more than 4,000 children in Gaza need immediate medical evacuation.<\/p>\n Two years of severe Israeli blockade on food and essential aid has made the humanitarian crisis even worse.\u00a0\u201cAlmost 165 children have died due to malnutrition and hunger in Gaza since October 2023,\u201d Khalaf said.<\/p>\n The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza, or 77 percent of its population, including about 800,000 children, will continue to face acute food insecurity in 2026.<\/p>\n Among the children in desperate need of nutrition is Rahaf Al Najjar, who is also 13 like Omar.<\/p>\n Rahaf was fetching food for her five siblings in northwest Gaza\u2019s Sudaniya area in September last year when fire from an Israeli quadcopter pierced both her legs.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is healing slowly. I am only able to provide her four eggs a week. She still has inflammation in both her legs and needs more nutritious food to heal faster. I can\u2019t bring meat or chicken for her, I don\u2019t have enough money for that. Sometimes, I bring her a fruit to eat without letting her siblings know about it,\u201d Rahaf\u2019s 35-year-old mother Buthayna Al Najjar told Al Jazeera at their tent in Jabalia.<\/p>\n Rahaf says the ongoing harsh winter has made her injury worse. \u201cOn cold days, it hurts even more. I feel electric\u2011like jolts in my leg. I need to take a medicine to feel better and be able to sleep,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Rahaf witnessed the killing of her father Ghassan Al Najjar, who, she says, \u201cused to pamper her more than her other siblings\u201d.<\/p>\n Ghassan died in an Israeli drone strike on November 5, 2024 while he was pulling the body of his cousin at Jabalia camp. Buthayna says Rahaf was able to crawl to her wounded father and dragged his body inside a tent.<\/p>\n \u201cHer father was still alive. He told her: \u2018Be strong, my daughter, and say salam to your mom\u2019. Then he took his last breath while she was still holding him, screaming and crying,\u201d the mother recalled.<\/p>\n Rahaf says she misses her father most when she is hungry or in pain. She also misses school. \u201cI wish I could get back to school. I miss drawing and PE classes,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n Buthayna says she has no money left for her children\u2019s education. \u201cI sold my mobile after losing my husband, so I could get my kids some food,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Interrupted education and a loss of familiar routines has worsened feelings of uncertainty and helplessness among Gaza\u2019s children, who have lost two years of schooling due to the bombing and displacement, and are forced to live in tents and help in fetching food and water for their displaced families.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have lost more than 20,000 students in the Israeli war during two years of aggression,\u201d Jawad Shiekh-Khalil, director of education in western Gaza, told Al Jazeera. \u201cNinety percent of the Ministry of Education\u2019s buildings have been completely or partially destroyed in the Israeli bombardment, and the remaining ones have turned into shelters for the displaced families.\u201d<\/p>\n He said they have implemented a new strategy, called an \u2018Emergency Plan\u2019, to make up for the education they have misses for two years.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the ceasefire, Israel has restricted entry of school supplies or stationery. Students can\u2019t find paper, pencils, notebooks, or even chalk. We have almost 400 registered educational points \u2013 most of them are tents spread across the Strip, for about 150,000 students,\u201d Shiekh-Khalil said.<\/p>\n UNICEF\u2019s Khalaf also said they are launching a back-to-learning programme to get Gaza\u2019s children resume their education and \u201cmake sure they don\u2019t forget what they have learned before\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t wait to lose a whole generation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Bahzad Al Akhras, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that losing academic education for two years affects children\u2019s cognitive, emotional, and social developments.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing away from school and having schools as shelters affects how children perceive the school as related to crowdedness and harsh living conditions,\u201d he said. \u201cA student will not be able to develop cognitive functions adequately when away from academic environment and the peer support.\u201d<\/p>\n Al Akhras said the genocidal war has impacted the children of Gaza in several ways.<\/p>\n \u201cThe direct impact is seen in children who were trapped under the rubble, children who sustained severe injuries, orphaned children, and those who had experiences with the Israeli soldiers at the checkpoints. The indirect impact is seen in the collapse of the education system as well as the ongoing starvation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The psychiatrist said children, unlike adults, are unable to express themselves verbally, often displaying behavioral manifestations of trauma.<\/p>\n \u201cTraumatised children show symptoms of behavioral changes. They become isolated or hyperactive, disobedient, more violent, or distracted, while some have problems with memory or forgetting. Many have to deal with bed-wetting,\u201d Al Akhras said.<\/p>\n Omar is undergoing such a trauma. \u201cHe has begun to lose his hair. He doesn\u2019t sleep well at night. He gets up often, screaming of nightmares or feeling that he has his leg back, and feeling the pain of losing a limb,\u201d Yasmin told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n The Palestinian boy says he feels helpless.<\/p>\n \u201cI suffer a lot when I need to use the toilet with one leg. It hurts a lot. I can\u2019t even carry a packet of vegetables. I fall down,\u201d he says, hoping to get a prosthetic leg soon.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst thing I wish to do after getting a prosthetic limb is to play football and swim in the sea. I love swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jabalia, Gaza \u2013 Omar Halawa got up from his chair, like any 13-year-old child would. But he\u00a0had forgotten a devastating detail about himself: he only had one leg. \u201cHe fell off the chair,\u201d his mother Yasmin Halawa told Al Jazeera. \u201cIt is very sad for us all, seeing him like that.\u201d Recommended Stories list of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8571","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\/8571","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=8571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
![\"Gaza](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_9799-1768229194.jpeg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
\u2018Worst place in the world for children\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"INTERACTIVE-GAZA](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Death-toll-tracker-1768141288.png?w=770&resize=770%2C962&quality=80\"){kind=tracking}
<\/p>\n\u2018On cold days, it hurts even more\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Gaza](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_97971-1768229327.jpeg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
Fears of losing \u2018a whole generation\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Interactive-Humanitarian](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Interactive-Humanitarian-graphics-all_DEC31_2025-1767183659.png?quality=80\")
<\/p>\n\u2018Traumatised children\u2019<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"