UN Decries Gaza Conflict as 'War on Children': Devastating Impact on the Youngest Amid Violence

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The UN has called the conflict raging in Gaza "a war on children." As Israel is trying to root out Hamas militants responsible for the October 7 attacks, it's the youngest who bear the greatest brunt.  WARNING: Report contains graphic images       #OIDW #DWVideos #WarOnChildren #GazaConflict #UNStatement #IsraelHamas #ChildVictims #GazaCrisis #HumanitarianCrisis #October7Attacks #ChildrenInConflict #GraphicContent #MiddleEastConflict #GazaUnderAttack #HamasMilitants #ProtectTheChildren #UNCondemnation                 ~HT.97~PR.152~ED.101~

Transcript

00:00In many ways, nine-year-old Mahmoud is like any child his age.

00:07He enjoys playing with his father and beating his younger siblings at video games.

00:13During those moments, he is a happy boy.

00:16I am Palestinian.

00:18I am patient.

00:19I can take a lot.

00:24I can endure everything.

00:28But sometimes, as if out of nowhere, what he has gone through overcomes him.

00:34His mother tells the story, Mahmoud cannot.

00:38I saw Mahmoud lying face down.

00:43His head was moving and he was breathing, but his right arm was not there.

00:48And his left arm was completely crushed.

00:50He told me, Mom, you take my sister and go.

00:53I will be martyred.

00:54I told him, no, my love.

00:56I would never leave you.

00:58He fell from my arms twice.

01:00I could not carry him at all.

01:05That was back in December.

01:07Mahmoud's mother tells me the family were heeding Israeli calls to leave the northern

01:11parts of the Gaza Strip.

01:12Then an Israeli rocket landed near Mahmoud.

01:17In the days after the strike, because of the anesthesia and fever, he was coming in and

01:21out of consciousness.

01:22He was hallucinating when he woke up and he would look at himself and ask me, where am

01:26my hands?

01:27Why am I like this?

01:28And he would cry.

01:29I could not make him stop, so I would cry with him.

01:32After the injury, he became like a baby again.

01:35He needed help with everything.

01:41Slowly but surely, Mahmoud is recovering here in Qatar, along with more than 2,000 other

01:46evacuees from Gaza.

01:49Most of them are women and children.

01:51Many have serious injuries.

01:54Initially built to house football World Cup fans, this compound is now a microcosm of

01:59human suffering, caused by a war Israel says is justified to protect its people.

02:07Everyone here has a story of loss and tragedy.

02:11In November, Mahmoud, his wife and two of their children were on their way to a market

02:16in Gaza when they were hit by an Israeli airstrike, he tells me.

02:21She was everything.

02:30She was life.

02:36But thank God she left me the children.

02:38We were civilians walking down the street.

02:40All our lives, all we ever asked for from God was protection.

02:48His son is getting treatment.

02:50He misses his mother and his siblings, some of whom are still trapped in Gaza.

02:55Getting the family back together is all that Mohammed can think about.

02:59But so far, all his attempts have failed.

03:05As for little Mahmoud, in one sense, he's the luckiest of the lucky.

03:10He was able to get out with his siblings and both of his parents.

03:14It's a big reason why they say he's having mostly good days.

03:19But the memories of his home, now a pile of rubble, are always with him.

03:25I'm used to being in my country, playing with my friends and playing with my cousins.

03:31What I loved the most was playing with my cousins.

03:34I loved them.

03:36We would ride bicycles together.

03:38We would play soccer together.

03:40We would go swimming.

03:42We were happy.

03:49We had fun.

03:52Mahmoud wants nothing more than to be able to return home one day.

03:57But the Gaza of his childhood no longer exists.

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