During recent hostilities in Gaza, one photograph captures a precious shot of the war’s situation. The image shows how small this little girl is: it’s Julia Abu Warda, three years old today. She stands among all those men who were given an order by Israeli soldiers to remove their clothes for searching at a checkpoint; it was shared by journalists connected with the Israel Defence Forces. This photograph clearly explains the emotional burden put upon the children by a war.
Julia is separated from her family having fled from Jabalia because of evacuation because of an airstrike getting worse while later finding refuge, staying with her family in the Gaza City area. This is what Julia’s dad said: ‘We left our house lots of times within three weeks since they started this war. Whatever we needed from the apartment, we ran with only that, for we went from house to house all over the terrible lands by aerial bombing ‘.
She admitted that the trauma of this war has really affected her because her father said her seven-year-old cousin Yahya was killed in one drone strike, and at the same time, increasing awareness of dangers around has engulfed her. In report to the United Nations, some 14,000 children have died in war raging for more than nine months, making it the latest tragedy for the underaged population.
The children in Gaza are in dire need of psychological assistance as the war continues, and nearly a million children will need some form of support. Julia is safe and sound with her family, but the psychological effects of this war will always be there in the long run. Even though the support of her community gives her some comfort, the depth of the destruction and violence inflicted on their lives cuts deep.
This is a very sharp reminder of all the personal tragedies behind these statistics and underlines the need for humanitarian aid and a solution to the conflict.
