DaysofPal- In a bed at al-Shifa Hospital, seven-year-old Hala Lubbad lies weighed down by severe injuries, repeating a question that no one around her has the heart to answer: “Where is my mother? Where is my father?”
In the early hours of June 2, an Israeli airstrike struck the Lubbad family home in Gaza City, sparking a catastrophic fire. The strike killed Hala’s 42-year-old father, a policeman, her 40-year-old mother, a teacher, and two of her siblings, aged 10 and 17. Of the entire household sleeping inside, only Hala and her 16-year-old brother, Mohammed, survived.
“The rest are gone,” said Hala’s 28-year-old aunt, Haneen Lubbad, who now cares for her.
Nearly two weeks after the attack, Hala possesses only scattered memories of the night. Doctors and psychologists have strictly advised the family to withhold the full truth of her family’s fate for now, warning that the sudden shock could cause her to psychologically collapse. Yet, the reality of her loss pierces through her recovery daily.
“She asks about them every day,” Haneen said. “She says, ‘I want my mother; I want my father. I want to talk to them.’ She keeps asking why they don’t visit her anymore.”
Hala has already undergone multiple surgeries for severe burns, but her medical team warns that her time is running out. Without urgent medical evacuation abroad, tissue damage risks costing the young girl her fingers.
“She was a normal child, full of life,” Haneen said. “Now she is between pain and fear.”
A Generation Separated and Orphaned
Hala’s reality is shared by thousands of children across the enclave. According to United Nations estimates, approximately 17,000 children in Gaza have been orphaned or separated from their parents and primary caregivers since the outbreak of conflict in October 2023.
Mental health professionals warn that these children face compounded, long-term risks of severe trauma, anxiety, depression, and a fundamental loss of safety and identity during critical developmental years. According to UNICEF, the war has claimed the lives of at least 21,289 Palestinian children and left more than 44,500 others wounded.
The danger has persisted despite the declaration of a “ceasefire” last October. Daily violations and attacks have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians since the agreement was struck. In the first three months of the ceasefire alone, UNICEF recorded the deaths of at least 60 boys and 40 girls, averaging roughly one child per day, though officials note the actual toll is likely higher.
A baby fighting for survival
For the children who survive the bombs, many are left to navigate life with permanent, altering disabilities. Humanitarian organizations report that Gaza now holds one of the highest rates of child amputees per capita in the world.
Among them is two-month-old Mohammed al-Khatib.
On May 25, an Israeli attack struck al-Mawasi, hitting a tent where Mohammed’s mother was breastfeeding him. The explosion killed his mother instantly and severed the infant’s left leg.
“I ran towards the spot, and I couldn’t find the tent,” recalled his father, Ahmed al-Khatib, speaking from the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. “I saw my wife drenched in blood, holding her baby. I took Mohammed from beneath her… and I discovered his left leg had been completely severed.”
Today, the two-month-old faces a grueling cycle of surgeries to stabilize his wounds, with doctors warning that his arm is also at risk of amputation. “How many operations can a two-month-old baby endure?” Ahmed asked. “This child will grow up without a mother and may grow up without a leg and perhaps without an arm too. What will be left of his life?”
Away from the hospital bedside, Ahmed’s grief is mirrored in his surviving two-and-a-half-year-old son, Adam, who searches the corners of their living space, calling out for his mother.
“I try to tell him his mother went to heaven,” Ahmed said, “but he’s a small child who doesn’t understand the meaning of permanent absence… he insists he wants to go to her.”
For children like Hala and Mohammed, physical survival is only the first hurdle. Gaza’s devastated healthcare system faces critical shortages, and health officials repeatedly warn that bureaucratic delays in transferring critically injured children abroad, especially those suffering from spinal trauma, severe burns, and complex limb injuries, frequently close the window on any meaningful chance of long-term recovery or rehabilitation.
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