War has always been deadly to children, but now a new concern has arisen in Gaza, where they seem to be vanishing without explanation. Parents believe that they are being abducted, but no-one knows what becomes of them.
21,000 dead or missing in just eight months
As early as June 2024, after just eight months of bombardment, it was credibly estimated that 21,000 children had died or disappeared in Gaza. Hamas argued that the death toll was higher; Israel argued that it was lower; but Save The Children, renowned for its expertise in assessing conflict situations, was confident of its figures, and no evidence has since arisen to undermine them.
These children, as far as can be established, were not intended victims, though many have argued that treating them as acceptable collateral damage is obscene. Some died as a direct result of the bombing, others of starvation or disease in the chaos that followed. Many were orphaned and unable to look after themselves. Displacement meant that extended families were dispersed and not always aware of what was happening to them, or able to take them in. Often older siblings were left to look after younger ones, but struggled to compete for resources.
Kidnapping claims
What is happening now is different. Parents report that children are disappearing in situations where there is no immediate conflict and no obvious explanation. It’s true that Gaza City is a dangerous place. Children don’t fully understand this, and some come to grief as a result of playing in ruins, but the number of reported disappearances in recent weeks is difficult to explain this way. Furthermore, they are all in the same age group, with older children unaffected. One worried father told Bylines Scotland of his certainty that there is a group of people kidnapping children and taking them to an unknown location. “It’s terrifying”, he said.
Notably, parents are not holding Israeli forces directly responsible for this. They believe that they could be involved, but also that organised crime could be behind it. There is a powerful coalition of gangs in southern Gaza which has been seeking to extend its influence. Not knowing compounds the fear, as no-one has any idea where to look for the children. There is no longer a functioning police force with the capacity to investigate.
The challenges of protecting children
Keeping children safe is particularly challenging in Gaza, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the public schooling system has collapsed and most people cannot afford to get their children educated privately, which means that they have no-one outside their families to take care of them. Although some extended families have managed to reunite, a lot of parents are on their own, and in many cases only one parent has survived. Injuries caused by bombing and shooting mean that disability rates among adults are extremely high. Often parents are physically incapable of keeping up with bored children who want to go exploring.
On top of this, many adults in Gaza are now occupied full time in searching for food, water, and items they can burn for cooking fires (usually clothing now, as available wood has all been used up). In some communities, neighbours take turns to watch the children, but competition for resources means that this kind of friendly arrangement can no longer be relied on everywhere. Meanwhile, children are so hungry that even where they have been taught to be wary, there is a high risk of them being lured into dangerous situations by strangers offering them food.
Until the pressure on communities is relieved by a relaxation of border controls, and social infrastructure can begin to be rebuilt, it is difficult to know what can be done about the risk to children. In the meantime, as well as causing intense distress to families, the disappearances contribute to the impact of the genocide.
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