✍️ By Malik Mukhtar | 📅 July 20, 2025
In Gaza, the war did not end. It only evolved into something crueler, colder, more systematic. It became a siege wrapped in legalese, defended by diplomats, and executed with impunity.
Nine months into this brutal campaign, the statistics read like a eulogy:
Over 60,000 killed, more than 140,000 injured, with women and children making up the majority.
1.9 million people—85% of Gaza’s population—displaced.
Entire neighborhoods reduced to dust and ash.
But this is not just about destruction. It is about erasure—of identity, of family, of future.
Children in Freefall: The Collapse of Care, Kinship, and Recognition
According to the UN, Gaza is now a graveyard not only of buildings, but of childhood. Unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) are trapped in a terrifying limbo. Torn from parents during evacuations, orphaned by bombings, or severed from family due to medical transfers, these children now live with strangers—often injured or too frail to provide care.
Some were newborns, separated in chaos during hospital attacks, passed to whoever could hold them.
Family reunification is not only a right—it’s a lifeline. But even that is choked by Israeli movement restrictions.
UNICEF, one of the last agencies with capacity to act, is often blocked or delayed.
Trauma, once acute, becomes chronic.
The only functioning temporary care center is barely standing, at risk of shutting down due to lack of food, fuel, and even staff. These children are not just alone—they are invisible.
No Name, No Nation: Gaza’s Ghost Generation
More than 10,000 children born since October 7, 2023, may never receive a birth certificate. They exist—but not officially. The civil registry system, like much of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, lies in ruins. Government offices have been bombed. Hospitals turned to rubble. Displaced families are in no position to file paperwork.
Without a legal identity, a child becomes prey—to trafficking, exploitation, and lifelong exclusion.
They cannot access education.
They may never travel.
They may grow up without any formal recognition of their existence.
This is how a generation disappears—without even a record of their birth.
The Siege Within the Siege: Where Aid Cannot Reach
The humanitarian response has become a cruel theater of statistics.
As of July 16, only 19% of the required $4 billion in aid has been disbursed. The situation in Gaza demands urgent global solidarity—but receives procedural apathy.
88% of that appeal is for Gaza.
And yet, the flow of aid is throttled—not by lack of will on the ground, but by restrictions and systematic obstruction.
The oPt Humanitarian Fund continues to manage over 122 emergency projects. But even that effort—largely driven by national and international NGOs—is strangled by denial of access, border closures, and the slow death of coordination mechanisms.
In this siege, food convoys are rerouted, flour is blocked, aid workers are bombed, and humanitarian agencies are criminalized.
This Is Not Just a Crisis. It’s an Indictment.
Every chart, every number, every “situation report” reads like a death certificate.
Stamped in the blood of children.
Signed by the indifference of nations.
Witnessed by those who watched—and said nothing.
And still, even now, Gaza is not allowed to breathe.
🖋 Malik Mukhtar
📌 www.ainnbeen.blogspot.com
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