Palestinian Children in Gaza

From the Archives: World Press Photo contest 2022

Palestinian children gather with candles during a fragile ceasefire in Beit Lahia, Gaza, Palestine, on 25 May 2021, after a protest by children in the neighborhood against attacks on Gaza.

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. Conflict spread to involve other cities in Israel, and rockets were fired across the borders with Syria and Lebanon, in what became the heaviest outbreak of fighting since the 2014 Gaza War. UNICEF stated that around 500,000 children in Gaza could be in need of psychological support following the 2021 conflict