“After a horrific night, we left the house raising a white piece of cloth so that the Israeli soldiers don’t shoot at us, holding Hatem between my arms and walking with Omar and Layan by my side. On the way out, they saw the beheaded body of their eight-year-old cousin along with other martyrs. They froze in horror and started screaming and crying,” said Yasmin. Hatem is four.

“My children have been emotionally disturbed after that experience. Layan struggled with bedwetting and Omar is afraid all the time, even from the sound of a chair hitting the floor.”

Omar and Layal are among tens of thousands of children in Gaza bearing the scars of a brutal genocide that has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians, 20,000 of them children. Nearly 42,000 other children have been injured, half of them sustaining life-altering injuries, as the Israeli attacks continue in violation of a United States-brokered ceasefire.