Dalam runtuhan rumah Gaza yang sebahagiannya musnah akibat tembakan Israel, tangisan seorang bayi kedengaran.
Farah yang berusia setahun tahu perkataan “mummy” tetapi tidak berjaya – air matanya tidak dapat ditenangkan oleh ibu bapanya.
Dia adalah salah seorang daripada kira-kira 19,000 kanak-kanak yang telah terpisah daripada ibu bapa mereka atau tidak ditemani di Semenanjung Gaza, menurut angka UNICEF.
Ramai ibu bapa seperti ibu bapa Farah telah terbunuh dalam serangan Israel di Semenanjung Gaza, yang telah membunuh lebih 40,500 orang sejak Oktober (tahun lalu).
Ada yang terbiar hidup sendiri, ada yang diambil oleh ahli keluarga muda dan tua.
Farah dan dua adik-beradiknya, Suhail, 9, dan Warda, 4, adalah satu-satunya ahli keluarga terdekat mereka yang tinggal selepas pengeboman di rumah mereka di utara Beit Lahia, Gaza. Ibu bapa mereka dan dua adik-beradik mereka terbunuh dalam serangan itu pada November.
Bapa saudara muda kanak-kanak itu kini menjaga mereka selepas mereka cedera parah dalam serangan itu.
“Sejak itu, anak-anak telah banyak bergelut, menangis dan sentiasa bertanya tentang ibu dan bapa mereka,” kata Hashim Masoud, 22, kepada The National.
“Selalunya sukar untuk menghiburkan mereka, terutama Farah, yang sentiasa menangis dan memanggil ibunya.”
Di tengah-tengah arahan pemindahan yang diberikan oleh tentera Israel dengan notis hanya beberapa jam, kempen pengeboman yang kerap dan perjalanan jauh untuk mencari makanan dan air, kanak-kanak menjadi yatim piatu pada kadar yang membimbangkan, serta terpisah daripada keluarga mereka.
Ramai kanak-kanak yang terselamat daripada serangan tidak dituntut di hospital dan kem, pekerja kesihatan memberitahu The National.
UNICEF mengumumkan pada Rabu bahawa ia cuba membantu keluarga menjejaki kanak-kanak di zon konflik dengan mengedarkan 450,000 gelang identiti. Di bawah skim itu, kanak-kanak di bawah enam tahun, yang mungkin sukar mengingati nama atau nombor telefon ibu bapa, akan diberi gelang gaya hospital untuk dipakai sekiranya berlaku perpisahan.
Ramai anak muda yang belum mendirikan rumahtangga sendiri kini bertanggungjawab terhadap anak-anak arwah orang tersayang.
Maha Hamad, 25, kini menjadi penjaga utama kepada anak saudaranya Mahmoud yang berusia 10 bulan, selepas kakaknya meninggal dunia ketika dia baru berusia tiga bulan.
Mahmoud dilahirkan oleh ibunya Tarnim di utara Gaza pada 29 Oktober pada awal perang, dengan bapanya berusaha untuk memastikan ibunya dipelihara supaya dia dapat menyusukan anak mereka.
Pada Januari, beberapa hari selepas meninggalkan rumah mereka di kem pelarian Jabalia di tengah-tengah tembakan Israel, rumah berdekatan yang mereka tinggal telah dibom. Mahmoud berada di dalam bilik yang berbeza dengan ibu bapanya dan ajaib terselamat daripada serangan itu.
Sejak kematian mereka, Maha telah mengambil tanggungjawab untuk menjaga Mahmoud, cuba menebus kehilangan ibu bapanya.
“Tetapi malangnya, tidak kira betapa keras saya mencuba, saya tidak dapat memberikannya apa yang ibunya akan berikan kepadanya,” katanya.
“Apabila dia bangun menangis pada waktu malam, kadang-kadang kami tidak dapat menenangkannya, walaupun ibu cuba membantu saya. Tetapi kanak-kanak merasakan kehadiran ibu mereka dan tenang bersamanya; ia adalah fakta yang diketahui umum.”
Kanak-kanak lebih tua yang ibu bapa terkorban oleh kempen pengeboman Israel mempunyai lebih banyak cara untuk meluahkan rasa sakit dan kekeliruan mereka, dan dengan sesetengahnya dijaga oleh ahli keluarga yang lebih tua, komunikasi boleh menjadi penuh.
Di sebuah sekolah yang berfungsi sebagai tempat perlindungan bagi orang yang kehilangan tempat tinggal di kejiranan Sheikh Radwan di bandar Gaza, anak tunggal Zeina, 12, merindui ibunya.
“Kadangkala Zeina bertanya kepada saya soalan yang saya tidak dapat mencari jawapannya,” kata neneknya Tahani Abu Ouda, yang berasal dari Beit Hanoun, kepada The National.
“Dia terus berkata: ‘mengapa saya tidak boleh pergi kepada ibu saya’, dan berharap untuk jumpa dia seminit untuk peluk dia dan jangan pernah lepaskan dia.
“Tidak kira betapa anak saya Mohammed, bapanya, mencuba, dia tidak akan dapat menggantikan kasih sayang dan penjagaan yang diberikan ibunya kepadanya.”
Ibu Zeina telah terbunuh pada Mac oleh tembakan Israel semasa dia mahu membeli hadiah untuknya. Dia menangis setiap hari dalam kesedihan.
“Tidak kira betapa sukarnya saya cuba untuk menghiburkannya, saya berjuang setiap hari, berharap saya dapat melakukan lebih banyak untuknya, tapi hanya sedikit boleh saya lakukan,” kata Tahani.
THE NATIONAL
In English
‘She calls for her mother’: The tragic tale of Gaza’s orphaned children
In the rubble of a Gaza home partially destroyed by Israeli shelling, the cry of a baby rings out. One-year-old Farah knows the word “mummy” but to no avail – her tears won’t be soothed by her parents.
She is one of an estimated 19,000 children who have been separated from their parents or are unaccompanied in the Gaza Strip, according to Unicef figures.
Many parents like Farah’s have been killed in the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,500 people since October. Some are left to fend for themselves, others are taken in by family members young and old.
Farah and her two siblings, Suhail, 9, and Warda, 4, were the only members of their immediate family left after a bombing on their home in Gaza’s northern Beit Lahia. Their parents and two of their siblings were killed in the attack in November.
The children’s young paternal uncle now looks after them after they were seriously injured in the attack.
“Since then, the kids have been struggling a lot, crying and constantly asking about their mother and father,” Hashim Masoud, 22, told The National. “It’s often hard to console them, especially Farah, who always cries and calls for her mum.”
Amid displacement orders given by the Israeli army with only hours’ notice, frequent bombing campaigns and long journeys to find food and water, children are becoming orphans at an alarming rate, as well as being separated from their families.
Many children who survive attacks go unclaimed in hospitals and camps, health workers have told The National.
Unicef announced on Wednesday it is attempting to help families keep track of children in the conflict zone by distributing 450,000 identity bracelets. Under the scheme, children under six, who may struggle to remember parents’ names or phone numbers, will be given hospital-style bracelets to wear in case of separation.
Many young people who have not started their own families have now become responsible for the children of deceased loved ones.
Maha Hamad, 25, is now the main carer for her 10-month-old nephew Mahmoud, after her sister died when he was only three months old.
Mahmoud was born to his mother Tarnim in northern Gaza on October 29 in the infancy of the war, with his father striving to keep the mother nourished so she could breastfeed their son.
In January, days after fleeing their home in the Jabalia refugee camp amid Israeli shelling, the nearby house they were staying in was bombed. Mahmoud was in a different room to his parents and miraculously survived the strike.
Since their death, Ms Hamad has taken it upon herself to care for Mahmoud, trying to make up for the loss of his parents.
“But unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I can never provide him with what his mother would have given him,” she said.
“When he wakes up crying at night, sometimes we just can’t calm him down, even though my mother tries to help me. But children sense their mother’s presence and calm down with her; it’s a well-known fact.”
Older children robbed of a parent by Israel’s bombing campaign have more ways to express their hurt and confusion, and with some being cared for by older family members, communication can be fraught.
In a school serving as a shelter for displaced people in Gaza city’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, only child Zeina, 12, misses her mother.
“Sometimes Zeina asked me questions I can’t find answers for,” her grandmother Tahani Abu Ouda, originally from Beit Hanoun, told The National. “She keeps saying: ‘why I can’t go to my mother’, and hoping to see her for one minute to hug her and never let her go.
“No matter how much my son Mohammed, her father, tries, he can never replace the love and care her mother gave her.”
Zeina’s mother was killed in March by Israeli shelling while she was going to buy presents for her. She cries every day in mourning.
“No matter how hard I try to comfort her, I struggle every day, wishing I could do more for her, but there’s only so much I can do,” Ms Abu Ouda said.
THE NATIONAL