Dozens of Palestinian kids in Gaza marked World Children’s Day by displaying paintings on the rubble of destroyed homes in the southern city of Khan Younis, using the artwork to express the harsh reality they experienced during the two-year Israeli genocide.
The event was organised by the Palestine Children’s Council on Thursday, established and supported by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, to coincide with the annual November 20 observance.
Through their drawings, the children illustrated the rights they lost, the homes they no longer have, and the disruption of their daily lives throughout the months of Israel’s genocide.
During the exhibition, a group of girls wearing traditional Palestinian dresses performed a song whose lyrics read, “O world, my land is burnt; the land of freedom is stolen,” expressing their ongoing suffering.
The children used the event to reflect “the reality they lived through after systematic destruction affected every aspect of life in Gaza, and the Israeli genocide that impacted stone, tree and human,” Abdel Halim Abu Samra, training director at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, told Anadolu.
Yareen Abu al-Naja, the mother of one of the participants, told Anadolu that Gaza’s children “spent the past two years watching body parts every day instead of watching their shows and movies, and smelling blood instead of flowers.”
“All forms of normal life disappeared in Gaza,” she said.
‘Behind every number is a child’
Meanwhile, UNICEF warned that an average of almost two children have been killed every day in Gaza since the ceasefire began.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, spokesperson Ricardo Pires said, "Since the 11th of October, while the ceasefire has been in effect, at least 67 children have been killed in conflict-related incidents in Gaza, and dozens more have been wounded."
He said this represented "an average of almost two children killed every day since the ceasefire took effect and the agreement that the killing would stop was finally achieved."
Pires stressed that behind every number is a child whose life was violently cut short, reiterating that these are not mere statistics.
He recounted what UNICEF teams are witnessing on the ground: children sleeping outdoors with amputations and others left orphaned and shaking with fear as they survive in flooded, makeshift shelters stripped of dignity.
"I saw this myself when I was last there in August. The reality imposed on Gaza remains brutally simple. There is no safe place for them, and the world cannot continue to normalise their suffering," he stressed.
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