Sajed al-Ghalban, 10, orphan

On one page in his notebook, Sajed al-Ghalban, 10, has drawn a picture of his mother and father at their old home in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. On another page, there’s a drawing of his mother taking him to a vegetable stand.

Sajed’s parents were killed in an air strike in the third week of the war in 2023.

For nearly two years, Sajed and his younger brother, Abdallah, were cared for by an aunt. Then, in July, that aunt was killed in a strike on a nearby tent. Now, they live in another tent with another aunt and her three children.

With no parents and a younger brother to care for, Sajed is suspended between childhood and premature adulthood. Sometimes he plays marbles and hide-and-seek with other children in the camp. But he is also increasingly trying to support his aunt in keeping their makeshift household together.

He sweeps the tent each morning. He lines up for hours in the heat to fetch water. He fixes the tent poles when they collapse. He makes kites from scrap material and sells them for pocket change that he saves to buy food for himself and Abdallah.

“I’m the man now,” Sajed told his aunt. “I’ll go buy what we need.”

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