Tens of thousands of children in Gaza: Doctor describes their unknown fate

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) pediatrician, spoke with News Nation on June 29, 2024, about injured and missing children in Gaza. Dr. Hassan recently worked in Gaza with another aid organization. Regarding a report released by Save the Children on June 24 stating that an estimated 20,000 or more children are missing in Gaza, Dr. Haj-Hassan said: “I think the report describes them potentially trapped under the rubble, buried in mass graves, unaccompanied from their families. There are multiple ways these children can be, ‘missing,’ but all of them are very horrifying places for your imagination to go. I’m not surprised by that figure, even if it was gut-wrenching to see it on paper, just because even in the hospital where I was working, there were many children that would come into the emergency department injured. And when I would inquire of distant family members who had survived those attacks, they would tell me that they don’t know where the younger brother is or where the older sister is of this child and family that they were able to retrieve from the rubble. And ultimately, they’re not able to retrieve anybody else from the rubble. And those people are never buried. We don’t know what their fate is. We don’t know how long they survive under the rubble before they ultimately die of suffocation and their injuries. There were also multiple children in the hospital who were orphaned since October and separated from their families and are now living either as injured patients or as internally displaced persons within the hospital grounds, unaccompanied and being cared for by benevolent strangers from their community.“ Make sure you don’t miss weekly video updates and ongoing series about our work in crisis zones across the world. Subscribe to our channel here: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières helps people worldwide where the need is greatest, delivering emergency medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care. Learn more at SUBSCRIBE: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Instagram: Follow us on Twitter: Connect with us on LinkedIn: Sign up for our newsletter: