SAFA -  The Israeli genocide in Gaza continues to claim the lives of Palestinian children, leaving grieving families asking why their sons and daughters have been targeted. As Israeli attacks persist across the besieged enclave, stories of loss unfold daily, turning moments of hope into lifelong sorrow.

At dawn on Sunday, infant Zaid Mohammad Nawfal was among those killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a residential apartment belonging to the Nawfal family in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Hours later, Ratel Mahmoud Abdullah, 9, was killed after an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a tent sheltering displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis.

The killings add to a growing list of Palestinian children whose lives have been cut short before they had the chance to fulfill their dreams, amid continued international silence.

A Child Born After Unimaginable Loss

For Zaid’s mother, Fatima, her infant son represented a fragile new beginning after enduring unimaginable loss. “His mother is in a state that words cannot describe,” said Iman Nawfal, a relative of the family.

“Zaid was the child who came after Amin, Hamza, and Ahmad were killed during the Israeli genocidal war. Today they have taken away the child who was her only comfort.”

Relatives said Fatima had spent months trying to cope with the killing of her three sons. The birth of Zaid, now just a year and a half old, had given her hope that life could continue despite overwhelming grief.

That hope ended when the latest Israeli strike destroyed the family’s apartment opposite the municipal building in Al-Bureij, leaving the mother without a home and without her children.

“What Was Ratel’s Crime?”

Several kilometers south, another family was plunged into mourning. The missile that struck a displacement tent near the Applied College in Al-Mawasi killed 9-year-old Ratel while she was asleep alongside relatives.

Her father, Mahmoud Abdullah, sat beside her shrouded body in shock, struggling to comprehend the loss.

“Ratel had gone with her uncle. They told me, ‘Let her stay with us for two days.’ Instead, she was taken from us forever,” he told Safa news agency.

As his wife and other children remain in the hospital receiving treatment for injuries sustained in the same attack, the grieving father repeatedly asks the question that has no answer.

“What was her crime? Why is our life like this? What did Ratel ever do?”

Children Bear the Heaviest Burden

The stories of Zaid and Ratel reflect the broader toll of the Israeli genocide on Gaza’s children. From Al-Bureij to Al-Mawasi, families continue to lose sons and daughters in attacks that erase childhoods and leave lasting trauma for survivors.

According to available figures, children and women account for roughly 60% to 70% of all Palestinians killed in Israeli ceasefire violations since 11 October last year. Of the 1,214 Palestinians killed, an estimated 400 to 500 were children, underscoring the devastating impact of Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza’s civilian population.