Blind childhood…New Zionist crime afflicts Gaza’s children

Amid tattered displacement tents and the rubble of houses reduced to dust by the Israeli enemy, a new tragedy unfolds in the ongoing saga of extermination faced by Gaza’s children.

Four-year-old Saja Abu Maghasib clings to the faint hope that what remains of her eyesight will not fade completely.

Saja was hit in the eye by shrapnel when the enemy bombed her family’s house, reducing her vision to only three percent.

Gaza’s hospitals could do little beyond stitching her wound, as advanced treatment remains impossible due to the collapse of the healthcare system destroyed by Israel, compounded by the blockade that prevents the entry of essential medicines, medical supplies, food, and water.

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, approximately 1,200 cases of vision loss have been recorded in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the war, while more than 5,200 children face the risk of death if they are not urgently evacuated for life-saving treatment outside the Strip.

Ammar Ammar, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Advocacy and Communications in the Middle East and North Africa, told Anadolu Agency that the ongoing bombing in Gaza has caused, in addition to death and injury, severe psychological and emotional trauma affecting around 1.1 million children, causing serious harm to their mental development.

Alongside her injury, Saja lost her father, who was martyred during the Zionist aggression on Gaza, like many other children in the Strip.

Saja now lives with her mother, who struggles alone to care for six children amidst the starvation imposed by the enemy, as well as the constant threats of death and displacement.

Her mother, Reda, fighting back tears, says: “Saja no longer plays like other children. She faces isolation due to her weak eyesight, and every day she asks me about the future of her eyes… but I am powerless to give her any hope.”

Between tears and deprivation, Saja’s story paints yet another picture of the crimes of genocide committed by Israel since October 7, 2023, while the world remains silent in the face of an escalating humanitarian disaster.

With Western and American complicity and partnership, Israel continues to commit acts of genocide and mass starvation in the Gaza Strip, resulting in over 64,522 martyrs and more than 163,000 injuries, including thousands of victims among aid-seekers and the starving.