Gaza/Nawa Network-Filastiniyat:
When Mohammad al-Shihk returned from the north of Gaza Strip after implementing a ceasefire, he found his home in Bet Hanon had become rubble. He decided to embark on a job hunt.
His mother says," After his father was killed in April 2024 by a bullet fired from a quadcopter, Mohammad became the man of the house."
Mohammad has three brothers younger than him, and all of them are committed to E-learning and learning programs conducted in tent camps. Still, he can't join any of the learning programs like his brothers due to his entire day working outside the home.
"If I don't work, my brothers won't have food. The prices skyrocketed after the Israeli occupation closed the crossing. With my money, I can at least bring back some bread."
He says to "nawa", "I leave my house at 6 p.m., and I’m starting to research people who are trying to clean the debris from their houses. I offer my services for 10 shekels”.
Mohammad's day ended at 5:00 AM, and he is trying to avoid thinking about the risks of this work to make a living, although he is young.
He added, "If I don't work, my brothers won't have food. The prices skyrocketed after the Israeli occupation closed the crossing. With my money, I can at least bring back some bread."
Mohammad returns from work daily, very tired, according to his mother. He collapses onto the mattress in the tent that his family set up on the rubble of their house and sleeps until dawn.
In the city of Jabalia, a nine-year-old girl, Maysoun Mazen, is trying to cover her expenses and those of her family by making beaded bracelets. She says: "The occupation’s planes bombed our house, and the only thing I managed to retrieve from under the rubble was the box of beads my mother gave me as a birthday gift before the war started."
Maysoun’s father is missing; his family doesn’t know whether he was killed during the Israeli attacks or if he is being held prisoner in the occupation’s jails. "My mother provides our food with the help of her family and some aid. We don’t even have the chance to ask for an allowance to buy something as simple as a piece of candy."
Every morning, Maysoun lays out the bracelets she makes on a piece of fabric and calls out to the little girls, hoping they will buy from her. She adds, "Sometimes they buy from me, and sometimes their mothers refuse because buying household necessities is more important."
Maysoun sells two pieces of the bracelets or necklaces she makes at best every day, with a total of no more than 10 shekels for everything she sells. "Sometimes, I can’t sell anything," she continues.
The young girl, who doesn’t attend her lessons regularly and only reviews by herself before exams, hopes things will go back to the way they were before the war. "My father would bring us some sweets when he came back from work, and my mother would make the best and most delicious food for us in our warm home," she says.
The phenomenon of child labor began to spread in the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli war on Gaza.
The phenomenon of child labor began to spread in the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli war on Gaza. Children suddenly found themselves responsible for lives that do not belong to them, carrying large water gallons, fighting over food in the long line at the charity kitchen, and finally searching for a livelihood in the labor market, amid the loss of their homes and providers.
Child labor is a violation of child protection laws, as emphasized by the psychological specialist Leila Ali, who spoke about the significant impact on physical and mental health when these children are involved in dangerous work, in addition to material exploitation and the lack of job security.
She says, "Child labor causes the child to spend most of their time removed from studies and proper discipline, which leads to a significant weakness in the child's character and paves the way for acquiring bad habits and inappropriate language from the street and some adults."
The psychological specialist talked about the possibility of the child being exposed to harassment and bullying from their peers in the labor market, "especially those who know them from school, and this affects the development of their personality, making them withdraw and isolate from others, and this makes them too weak to form relationships with others."
Child laborers often cannot balance studying and working together because their age doesn't allow them to do so, which has very negative effects on their psychology and makes them constantly feel stressed as something important slips away from them, while they are unable to achieve it.
Psychological specialist Leila mentions that laboring children do not receive healthy meals or any type of care due to work, "which makes them prone to diseases that may reach a point where treatment becomes so difficult."
The institutions specialized in child affairs in Gaza and the Palestinian government have called to make the issue of "child labor" a priority in their plans, and they say, "So that we do not find ourselves facing a phenomenon that is difficult to control later. All of this is for the sake of our children's welfare."
