What does peace mean for Gaza’s children?
17 January 2025Four vital steps for supporting children after 15 months of suffering. Dr Unni Krishnan, Plan International's Global Humanitarian Director, offers his expertise and experience after the announcement of ceasefire in Gaza.
For children in a war zone, peace means hope.
A ceasefire is a fragile thread that provides hope in the face of unimaginable hardship. After 15 months of relentless suffering, a just peace offers a rare moment of respite for Gaza’s children and children who have been held as hostages and prisoners, an opportunity for healing, recovery, and the promise of a life beyond the horrors of war.
During a humanitarian mission to Gaza, I met Wahida, eight, near her bombed-out school. A smile broke on Wahida’s face when she found a colourful, partially burned poster she’d made for a school project. She told me that she was happy she got it back, sad the bombs burned part of it. Wahida’s optimism shone through as she expressed hope that soon there would be no more bombs and missiles and she would return to school to play with friends, a reminder that even in the darkest moments, children still dare to dream of peace.
As a humanitarian worker, I have seen firsthand the horrific toll that war takes on the most vulnerable- children even long after the guns fall silent.
But I have also witnessed the power of peace and what ceasefires can bring to bombed out homes and neighbour hoods where families used to live, share meals and laughter. Life will never be the same when you live through war, if you are lucky enough to survive one.
Gaza urgently needs action. From experiences of working in war zones and from the history of cease fires in Gaza and elsewhere, here I list four vital steps:
1. Put children first
Children never start wars, but suffer the most. In Gaza, children bear the brunt. At least 17,580 children are amongst the 46,707 people killed in just 15 months. Burn injuries from bombs and missile strikes have taken a very heavy toll on the fragile bodies of young children.
Children never start wars, but suffer the most.
Over 21,000 children in Gaza have sustained conflict-related injuries, including children who are severely wounded with no known surviving family members, requiring significant rehabilitation. Many will sustain long-term disabilities, which amplifies emotional suffering and reduced mobility stops children from accessing vital service.
There are children amongst the hostages taken from Israel , and Palestinian children are being held in illegal detention in Israeli prisons. They have endured suffering that no child deserves. Research studies show that hostage and kidnap survivors can often experience stress reactions including denial, impaired memory, shock, numbness, anxiety, guilt, depression, anger, and a sense of helplessness.
In Gaza, children have lost their homes, separated from friends, families and care givers. Thousands remain buried in the rubble of bombed out homes, and hospitals and schools, decimated in relentless bombing by Israeli military, leaving most of Gaza in unliveable condition.
Prioritising children’s needs should be the starting point in relief and recovery efforts.
2. Commit to a lasting ceasefire
“In a war zone, you can sign a peace deal on the back of a used envelope” is an often-repeated simple truth amongst mediators and negotiators. Making cease fires work and to make them to travel in the direction of permanent peace depends on how the parties in the conflict are committed to it.
Ceasefire is a beginning, not the end. It is an important turning point offering a future without war. Action must go beyond the immediate end of violence and for lasting peace. All parties involved in the conflict must fulfil their promises and be held accountable for violations that may rock the peace deal.
Scaling up lifesaving humanitarian assistance and unhindered humanitarian access are critical.
With almost 90% of schools damaged, children lack education and safe places, vital for learning and healing.
Rebuilding homes, hospitals, water supply systems and restoring education is vital to avoid further health emergencies and preventable deaths.
3. Go beyond visible needs
The situation is dire. Food, water, safe shelter, healthcare, emotional support, protection and education services should be priorities to help children and Gazans to get back on their feet.
Thousands of children are still facing famine like conditions. Time is running out fast. Food and nutrition supplies should be a first priority. The destruction of water and hygiene facilities have forced young girls and women to go on without baths for days or even weeks, impacting their health and dignity. Cash assistance can go a long way to get markets functioning.
The war’s psychological impacts are often invisible but still catastrophic. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had concluded that Israel was committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, echoing the UN’s finding that the policies and practices of Israel against Palestinians in Gaza are consistent with the characteristics of genocide.
There is only so much young minds can take.
Children in Gaza have witnessed death, suffering and violence that would be unimaginable to most adults. An 18-year-old in Gaza today will have lived through conflict in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021 and now since October 2023.
There is only so much young minds can take. Each new war chips away their innocence and steals their childhood. Even when guns fall silent, psychological scars remain.
Healing these wounds require more than just medical treatment, it requires compassionate care and support. Essential supplies, emotional care, schools and playgrounds can go a long way to help children heal.
Living through a cease fire is living between fear and hope. Healing minds is key to rebuild lives. Emotional care and support should be a priority in relief efforts.
4. Care for relief and health workers:
Frontline workers have lived through daily brutality for over 15 months. Relief workers, nurses, ambulance drivers, doctors and teachers have demonstrated remarkable resilience and resistance but the emotional toll of conflict is immense.
Even in rubble, there are fragments of hope.
Restrictions by Israel on vital aid have forced doctors to perform surgeries with minimal or no anaesthesia, sometimes on their own children. Teachers have seen schools being turned to to rubble. Parents have witnessed forced starvation reducing children to their bones. Human mind works like a balloon and requires utmost care.
Relief workers have expressed anger, sadness, and immense emotional suffering. Their work is vital for rebuilding lives. Helping relief workers heal emotionally makes relief work more impactful and should be a priority in recovery efforts.
The destruction in Gaza has been catastrophic. UN secretary general Antonio Guterres once warned that Gaza was ‘becoming a graveyard for children’. The past 15 months have tragically confirmed those fears.
Yet in the face of such despair, we must remember that even in rubble, there are fragments of hope. I remember vividly what I saw on a charred poster from a bombed school in North Gaza. It bore the words of Mahmoud Darwish, regarded as the Palestinian national poet: “There is so much on this land worth living for”. For Gaza’s children a cease fire and permanent and just peace means finding a way to live for those fragments of hope.
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