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Children Of War: Childhoods Erased In Gaza

What does it mean to grow up in a warzone? In Gaza, children are being buried faster than they can be counted. Schools have become shelters. Shelters have become graves. This photo essay bears witness to Gaza바카라™s youngest survivors, displaced, starving, and grieving. They play amid rubble, queue for bread at dawn, and sleep under tarpaulins instead of roofs. With every frame, we see what the numbers can바카라™t tell us: how war disfigures not just bodies, but childhood itself. Gaza바카라™s children aren바카라™t collateral damage. They are the front line. And they are running out of time.

Israeli-Palestinian war, Gaza바카라™s Children_
Israel-Gaza War | Photo: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images

Children crying because of Israeli air raids on October 15, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Many Gazan citizens have fled to the south following warnings from the Israeli government to do so.

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Israel-Gaza War | Photo: Fatima Shbair/Getty Images

A Palestinian girl stands amid the rubble of her destroyed home on May 24, 2021 in Beit Hanoun, Gaza.

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Israel-Gaza War | Photo: AP/Armando Franca

People walk by an installation of children's clothes and toys spread along Carmo street in downtown Lisbon to bring attention to the situation of children in Gaza, Friday, May 30, 2025.

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Israel-Gaza War | Photo: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana

Palestinian children get food at a food distribution kitchen in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Friday, May 30, 2025.

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Israeli-Palestinian war, Gaza바카라™s Children_
Israel-Gaza War | Photo: AP/Jehand Alshrafi

Palestinian women wait with their sick children for medical care in an overcrowded clinic in Gaza City, Wednesday, May 28, 2025.

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Israel-Gaza War | Photo: MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES

Children play soccer at sunset in proximity to the Ramat Hovav power plant in Wadi Al-Naam, Israel, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023.

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Israeli-Palestinian war, Gaza바카라™s Children_
Israel-Gaza War | Photo: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images

Palestinian children carry empty bowls during a march demanding an end to the war and an end to the famine that citizens suffer from due to the war on March 6, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza.

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Israel-Gaza War | Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images

Fadi Zant, aged 9, experiencing malnutrition, receives treatment after evacuated from the northern Gaza Strip to the IMC field hospital in Rafah, Gaza on March 24, 2024. The Gaza Strip is on the brink of famine as Israeli attacks on the area enters its sixth month.

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Israeli-Palestinian war, Gaza바카라™s Children_
Israel-Gaza War | Photo: Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images

Two boys sit amongst the rubble as people inspect damage and recover items from their homes following Israeli air strikes on April 02, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza.

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Israel-Gaza War | Photo: Hani Alshaer/Anadolu via Getty Images

A boy holds an Israeli unexploded ordnance as Palestinian kids collect wood and plastic waste amid the rubble of collapsed buildings and piles of rubbish as they face fuel crisis due to the ongoing Israeli attacks on Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip on November 04, 2024.

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Israeli-Palestinian war, Gaza바카라™s Children_
Israel-Gaza War | Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

A Palestinian boy pulls a makeshift cart loaded with water containers along a road next to a destroyed building in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, on May 28, 2025.

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Israel-Gaza War | Photo: Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini/Anadolu via Getty Images

8-year-old Mohammed Nail Abu Naji, who suffers from cerebral palsy, is seen with his family in makeshift tent in As-Sumoud Refugee Camp in Sheikh Ridwan neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on May 27, 2025. Deprived of vitamin supplements, basic nutrients and medical care due to Israeli attacks, Mohammed is currently living on pulses provided by aid organizations and trying to survive under difficult conditions.

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