17,000 orphans
UNICEF estimated in February 2024 that there were at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip accompanied or separated from their parents. This was a conservative estimate because the nature of the weapons used, the lack of resources to rescue those trapped under rubble and the fact that in many instances there is nobody left to report those missing. It has been 9 months since then and does not consider the devastation in Lebanon.
UNICEF is the United Nations Children Fund and unlike the US of A or Izzy I believe the estimates of the United Nations can be relied upon, and I do not consider myself above the law.
At least 17,000 children and that was 9 months ago. I find it almost impossible to get my head around the devastation, the cruelty or the fact that humanity abandoned these children.
I hope we all remember.
17,000 orphans
When those 17,000 orphans with their missing limbs
and shattered dreams when they grow up
with memories long and courage born
from blood and loss when they grow up
fuelled with rage and the knowledge
of how easily they were forsaken
when they grow up I hope we remember.
When those 17,000 orphans grow up
and are armed with things much worse than stones
and their fight is tinged with despair
because there is nothing left to lose
when those 17,000 orphans grow up
I hope we respect their memories of how us it did not concern
17,000 orphans who the world left all alone.
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