Palestinian children gather with candles in Beit Lahia, Gaza, Palestine, after a protest by children in the neighborhood against attacks on Gaza, during a fragile ceasefire following an 11-day conflict between Hamas and Israel.
The photographer was born and raised in Gaza, and was nine years old when the blockade of Gaza City began in 2006. She decided to tell her story in 2021, through the stories of others, as she finds it difficult to watch childhood events recurring in the present. UNICEF stated that around 500,000 children in Gaza could be in need of psychological support following the 2021 conflict.
The 11-day conflict had broken out on 10 May, following rising tensions over threatened evictions in the disputed Sheikh Jarrah district in East Jerusalem, and clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound – one of Islam’s holiest sites – in Jerusalem’s Old City. Hamas, the de facto governing authority in Gaza, had set Israel an ultimatum, demanding Israel withdraw its security forces from the Al-Aqsa compound, and when the deadline passed, fired rockets on Jerusalem. Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza. The conflict escalated, spreading to involve other cities in Israel and fire across the borders with Syria and Lebanon, in what became the heaviest outbreak of fighting since the 2014 Gaza War. According to the UN, more than 230 Palestinians were killed, including 106 women and children. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported 13 casualties in Israel, of which 12 were civilians. A ceasefire was finally agreed on 20 May, coming into effect the following day.
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