Tariq Abu al-Shaer, 5, dreamed of becoming a pediatrician

Tariq Abu al-Shaer is one of the 18,500 children (under 18) on the list of children killed in Gaza published by the Washington Post.

The Post was able to get photos and descriptions of some of the children from family members. Tariq was one.

Unlike many children, Tariq would ask his mother to help him get ready quickly so he could hurry to school. He owned a bicycle and dreamed of becoming a pediatrician.

Last September, an airstrike killed Tariq, his brother Sannd who was just 70 days old, and his 8-year-old brother Abdul.

More information at Washington Post

Laylah Ziyarah and her baby son, Hani, who lost a leg in a bombing

“… On 22 February 2025, I gave birth to Hani. The joy was immense. I told him he brought us hope because he was born when the war ended. But the joy didn’t last long. Less than a month later, the war started again with even greater brutality. The house next to ours was bombed, and we were rescued from under the rubble, covered in dust. Hani’s face was black from the debris.

“We moved back to my parents’ house. There were eight of us there. On 21 June 2025, the house was bombed while we were inside. At that moment, I was sitting breastfeeding Hani with the kids and my sisters. There was a massive explosion. I heard walls collapsing, stones falling, and glass shattering, and then there was thick smoke and complete darkness. We couldn’t see each other. I heard voices screaming, crying and asking, ‘Is everyone okay? Who’s hurt?’

“I felt for Hani’s head, then his body. When I reached his right leg, it was simply gone. …”

More from B’Tselem, an Israeli non-governmental organization

Abdul Rahim, boy who thanked aid worker for food, then was shot

Last May 28, an aid worker for the US- and Israel-backed aid organization Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) gave a boy some food. The boy thanked him, kissed his hand, and went back to the crowd of people who had come there hoping to get food. Israeli soldiers opened fire on the crowd, killing the boy and others.

The aid worker was Anthony Aguilar, a United States Army veteran. He has circulated photos of the boy. The boy’s mother identified him as her son, Abdul Rahim, with whom she had lost contact after he set off for the food distribution site.

The Israelis say they only fire warning shots and that their purpose is to control the huge crowds at the GHF sites.

More information: Al Jazeera

A day in the life of Abeer and Fadi Sobh and their six children

Washing in seawater in the morning, getting the kids to sleep more during the day, waiting by the soup kitchen that’s rarely open, begging for food when it’s not. Sometimes, someone shares a little.

More information at Associated Press

Ayloul Qaud, 7 years old

Ayloul was “the most beautiful child I have ever seen in my life, inside and out,” said her aunt Hiba Muqdad. “We would walk in the street and she would refuse to buy anything, knowing that other children in the street were unable to eat.”

On July 30, 2025, the Washington Post published the names of 18,500 children killed in Gaza. For some, like Ayloul, the Post published photos and stories supplied by their families.

More information at Washington Post

What happened when Maher Al-Hattab tried to get food from the GHF, and why Basel Hasouna decided not to go

Maher Al-Hattab, 19, plucked up his nerve and joined the crowds outside one of the collection sites for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the U.S.- and Israeli-backed food distribution outfit. system that's replaced the U.N. aid system in Gaza.

Israeli troops fired at them as they waited for food. Hattab, lying in the sand, saw people hit.

When the trucks arrived with less food than expected, Hattab says people fought over it, some with knives. Hattab survived. He came away with enough food for his family for two days.

…

Basel Hasouna has five hungry children, but he says the people who need food the most are not getting it, and dozens of people have been killed just this week approaching the GHF or aid trucks. He doesn’t want his son to be humiliated trying to get food. He says they would rather die of hunger at home.

More information at NPR

Salwa, 4 ½, one of five children who starved to death at Patient’s Friends Hospital for lack of nutrition supplies

Salwa arrived at the hospital with alarmingly low potassium levels. She could barely move her body. But medicine for potassium deficiency has largely run out across Gaza. Salwa did not respond to the low-concentration potassium the hospital was able to give her and died after three days.

The hospital staff is starving, too. Two nurses put themselves on IV drips to keep themselves going. “We are exhausted. We are dead in the shape of the living,” said nutritionist Dr. Rana Soboh.

More information at Associated Press

Nehma Hamouda, grandmother of orphaned infant

Nehma Hamouda’s daughter gave birth prematurely after she was shot by Israeli soldiers. That was three months ago. Several weeks later, the new mother died.

Since then, Nehma has been trying to take take of her tiny grandchild, Muntaha. Muntaha can’t yet process solid food, even if there was some. Nehma can’t get baby formula.

“I resort to tea for the girl,” Hamouda said. “She’s not eating, and there’s no sugar. Where can I get her sugar? I give her a bit [of anise], and she drinks a bit.”

“At times, when we get lentil soup from the soup kitchen, I strain the water, and I try to feed her. What can I do?”

More information: Al Jazeera

Zainab Abu Halib, 5-month old baby, died weighing less than the day she was born

Zainab Abu Halib weighed two kilograms, about 4.4 pounds, when she died of starvation. At her birth five months ago, she weighed three kilograms.

Her mother, who also has suffered from malnutrition, said she breastfed the girl for only six weeks before trying to feed her formula. But the girl needed special formula because she was allergic to cow’s milk. There was none.

“With my daughter’s death, many will follow,” said the mother. “Their names are on a list that no one looks at. They are just names and numbers. Our children, whom we carried for nine months and then gave birth to, have become just numbers.”

More information: Los Angeles Times

Rahaf Saed, 3-year-old double amputee featured on U.S. children’s television

Rahaf Saed lost both of her legs in an Israeli airstrike in August, 2024. Several months later, she was brought to the United States for medical care. She can now walk and dance on prosthetic limbs. “Ms Rachel” filmed a program with her that is due to air on YouTube this fall.

The Washington Post story includes a one-minute video of Rahaf and Rachel singing and dancing “Hop Little Bunnies.”

More information: Washington Post

Adam Abu Harbid, journalist

The British newspaper The Guardian posted a one-minute video on Friday, July 25, that starts with the funeral of journalist Adam Abu Harbid, killed in an Israeli attack the night before. In the video, Harbid’s sister-in-law says, “Look at us with some mercy. We are not just numbers. Someone is a father who has children, responsibilities, a family waiting for him, a family that wants him next to them at all times.

“We can’t even be counted in numbers anymore because of how many of us are dying. Have some mercy on us.”

More information: The Guardian

Edward Antone, audio recording about the attack on Holy Family Church

Doctors Without Borders driver Edward Antone was not in Holy Family Church when it was struck by Israeli forces on July 17, but his family was. Two people were killed and several wounded including his three-year-old son, hit in the leg by shrapnel.

Antone made an audio recording describing the attack.

More information: Doctors Without Borders

Abdullah Hammad, killed while waiting for aid trucks carrying flour

Adullah Hammad, a hygienist working for Doctors Without Borders, was killed by Israeli forces on July 3 as he and other Palestinians waited for aid trucks carrying flour. MSF said the Israelis attacked without warning, killing at least 16. Hammad had worked at the Al-Mawasi clinic for a year and a half.

More information: Doctors Without Borders

Saeed Abu Libda, wounded trying to get flour for his family — but he survived

As famine spreads through Gaza, the few food trucks are often looted, either by armed gangs or by people who are just desperate to feed their families.

Saeed Abu Libda, a 44 year-old father of five, recently managed to pick up one sack of flour when a truck passed by near Khan Younis. "I know it was risky but we need to eat," he told DW by phone.



Abu Libda said there were thousands of people waiting for the trucks, when suddenly he heard two shells being fired. "I saw people on the ground, some were injured, some were cut to pieces. I was injured by a shrapnel in my abdomen, but luckily it was a light injury.”

More information: dw.com (Deutsche Welle, international broadcaster funded by the government of Germany)

The family of Aya Hasunah a-Susi

“On Friday, 9 August 2024, my family was wiped out.

“We were in a good mood, even though we could hear bombings, some closer and some far away. My husband helped me finish getting things ready for the meal, and then he said: “I want to sit outside by the tent until the food is ready.” He sat out there with his brother Walid and my maternal uncle Majed.

“The children wanted to play next to their father and I let them. I heard them laughing and playing.

“Suddenly, I heard a huge blast. I was about eight meters away from my husband and kids. I immediately turned around to look at them, but all I saw was black smoke. I screamed and ran to them. I found my daughter Raghad covered in blood, lying on her back.Then I found my husband ‘Abdallah. His clothes were like black coal. Then I saw my son Hamzah. His head was covered in blood.

“They were all dead.”

More information: Voices from Gaza, a website created by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem

A single mother of eight trying to keep her family alive

Mahasin al-Zaneen, 39, describes herself as “a burning candle that lights the way for others.”

Her husband, a school principal, died of COVID in 2021. She and her eight children have been displaced 10 times since the war began. Their home was reduced to rubble by an Israeli airstrike. But what’s on her mind now is food.

Her daughters feel dizzy. One daughter lost teeth because she doesn't have enough calcium. Her eldest daughter, Rana, a 20-year-old medical student before the war, weighs under 90 pounds. 

Some days, a charity kitchen gives them lentils and they get water from a truck that comes by every morning. 

Water for breakfast, lentils for lunch - some days, water for dinner. This, says Mahasin, is their life. 

More information: NPR (A report broadcast on All Things Considered, June 5, 2025)

Muhammad Ibrahim Adas, infant, died of malnutrition

Muhammad Ibrahim Adas, an infant, died of malnutrition on Monday, July 28, according to a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The hospital had no baby formula to keep him alive. He was one of at least 14 people who starved to death in a 24-hour period.

More information: Al Jazeera

Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of the pediatric ward at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza

“There is no one in Gaza now outside the scope of famine, not even myself,” Dr. al-Farra told the New York Times. “I am speaking to you as a health official, but I, too, am searching for flour to feed my family.”

Dr. al-Farra said the number of children dying of malnutrition had risen sharply in recent days.

More information: New York Times

Khader, 19, shot trying to get food

Late one night in June, Mahmoud Qassem lost his 19-year-old son, Khader. The boy was shot trying reach a food distribution center run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Khader was apparently killed around midnight because Mahmoud talked with his son by phone at 11pm. “He told me he was in a safe place — he had gone to the Netzarim distribution center — and I told him to take care," Qassem told DW from a tent in Gaza City.

 "At 1 a.m., I tried calling him again, but his phone wasn't receiving calls. I started to feel anxious. There was no word the whole time, and I waited until 2 p.m. on Friday. I felt like a fire was burning inside me," said the father.

On Friday, Mahmood went to central Gaza and checked the hospitals until he discovered that Khader had been killed. When the body was eventually recovered, after coordination with the Israeli military, it showed that his son had died from several gunshot wounds.

Qassem said he hadn’t wanted his son to go, but Khaled wanted to help his family.

More information: dw.com (website of Deutsche Welle, international broadcaster funded by the government of Germany)

Khadija Manoun: From a comfortable home to rubble

equipped with electric appliances. But she and her family have been displaced more than 20 times. Now they live in a destroyed building. Her kitchen is a corner of the rubble. The bathroom is another corner, walled of by old blankets.

Clean drinking water is a luxury. She chases water trucks, often returning with empty containers.

Photos on her phone help her remember the home, the food, and the life she had.

More information: UN News