Gaza Ministry Tallies 54,468 Orphans Since War Began

The Palestinian Ministry of Social Development in Gaza said on Thursday that 54,468 children have lost one or both parents since October 2023. Across the territory, the ministry counts at least 64,000 widows and 71,000 orphaned children, a total that includes people bereaved in earlier Israeli military attacks on Gaza. Its orphan registration system also shows about 3,000 children with no registered guardian, custodian or caregiver.

Mariam Abu Asser, 16, her sister Aya, 14, and brother Jebril, 12, are among them. Their father died during Israel's 2014 offensive on Gaza. Their Gaza City home was destroyed after the war began in 2023, and they sheltered with their mother, Islam, in a makeshift tent in Deir al-Balah. On the nineteenth day after a ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025, an Israeli bomb struck the tent and killed her.

The children now move between aunts' tents. Aunt Warda al-Muzeini said the three spend two nights with each aunt and otherwise stay with their paternal grandmother. Jebril was in his mother's lap when the bomb hit and was injured himself. "He saw his mother die in front of him," Muzeini said.

Muzeini lost her husband in an Israeli air strike and raises four children without a job or reliable income. She said she struggles to provide one meal a day. Another aunt is also a widow. The sisters split costs: one buys pyjamas, another slippers, another supplies pocket money for a couple of days.

Ministry spokesperson Aziza al-Kahlout said the totals do not capture what families face daily. A child who has lost both parents has lost care, safety, education and childhood, she said, and carries responsibilities beyond their years. Women who become a family's sole breadwinner must provide for children while raising them. Kahlout warned of "deeply alarming signs of growing risks of child labour, school dropout and early marriage in Gaza," driven by poverty, displacement and the loss of breadwinners.

Some children lost their entire family. Wafaa al-Attar, now 13, was 10 on 22 February 2024 when she left home to charge her father's phone at an uncle's house. A blast struck as she approached the door. "I turned around, and our home was no longer there," she said. The air strike in Deir al-Balah killed her father, Ahmed; her mother, Khouloud; and siblings Rital, 8, Muhammed, 5, Obada, 3, and nine-month-old Yazan.

Attar suffered minor shrapnel injuries and went to hospital. She asked about her family until her uncle told her they had died. She was silent for two or three hours before asking: "All of them at once?" She stayed first with grandparents, then with her uncle, his wife and their newborn. "For months, I wished I had been with them in the house when it was bombed," she said.

The ministry's registration figures cover children who lost a parent since October 2023. The wider orphan count of 71,000 includes deaths from earlier Israeli military operations in Gaza.