At the heart of southern Gaza, inside the overwhelmed Nasser Hospital, trauma nurse Elidalis Burgos faced a moment she will never forget. She sat cradling the lifeless body of one-year-old Khaled, a child with no known family, as chaos swirled around her. With doctors and nurses rushing to the next emergency, Burgos asked who would take the baby to the morgue. The answer came: "No one." So, she did it herself, carrying Khaled nearly 800 meters to a freezer already filled with other bodies. "I found myself patting his little back like you would trying to put a baby to sleep," she told The Independent. "I kept having to remind myself, you’re not putting him to sleep – he’s not alive. It was horrific."
Khaled’s story is not unique in Gaza these days. He is one of countless children caught in the relentless Israeli military offensive that has now expanded into Gaza City. Hospitals, already reeling from a surge of war casualties, have themselves become targets for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), according to The Independent. Doctors, journalists, and aid workers have all lost their lives in the ongoing violence. Israel has ordered mass evacuations from Gaza City, pounding high-rise towers that it claims are used by Hamas for military purposes. As the bombing intensifies, the IDF has tried to push Palestinians toward the southern area of al-Mawasi—ironically, a region it has also bombed repeatedly despite designating it a "safe zone."
On Thursday, September 11, 2025, Médecins Sans Frontières issued a sobering warning: the health system in Gaza is "on the brink." The ongoing escalation in Gaza City threatens to close 11 out of the 18 hospitals that are still partially functioning in the Strip. The situation is dire, and the numbers are staggering. According to the United Nations, more than 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza since Israel began its military campaign in October 2023, a campaign triggered by the killing of over 1,200 Israelis by Hamas on October 7.
Children are paying the highest price. Already ravaged by disease and famine, many arrive at hospitals alone—grievously injured, seriously ill, and without a parent or even a familiar face to comfort them. "Often these children – and I'm talking about kids from the age of two and up – arrive without an adult," explained Dr. Saira Hussein, an Australian medic who recently returned from a month working in Gaza. "So there would literally just be a child on a makeshift trolley on its own, with horrific injuries, waiting to come into the theatre for an operation."
The statistics are as grim as the anecdotes. In July 2025, nearly 12,000 children under the age of five were found to have acute malnutrition, including more than 2,500 suffering from severe malnutrition, according to UN data. The World Health Organization believes these numbers are likely underestimates. The Palestinian statistics agency reported in April 2025 that over 39,000 children in Gaza had lost one or both parents since the conflict began. The agency concluded that Gaza is "suffering from the largest orphan crisis in modern history."
Dr. Hussein’s memories from her time at Nasser Hospital are haunting. She described children being wheeled into the operating theatre for critical and life-saving surgeries, often with no family members present. One night in July, she recalled, a 12-year-old girl arrived in desperate need of surgery to repair her esophagus. "She had tubes coming out of both of her lungs, leaking feces, with a ruptured abdomen. There was nobody with her. She was just pushed and sort of left in the corridor. So you can imagine the fear and the pain that this child is in."
Another child, about three years old, suffered severe burns. Dr. Hussein visited his bed several times to change his dressings, but never once saw an adult or relative. "He’d be lying there, unable to move, just whining for his father. That’s all he would do. And I think I saw that kid about three times, and every time he was on his own and saying the same thing. There was never anybody with him."
Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital, confirmed to The Independent that children often die in the hospital alone, without the comfort of family. Burgos, the trauma nurse, said the treatment of unaccompanied children is becoming "commonplace because the bombardments are so massive." She added, "Whole families are being wiped out at a time."
The corridors of Nasser Hospital have become a refuge for many displaced people trying to escape the Israeli bombardment. The sounds of children fill the hallways—some with their families, many without. "In every hallway, children run up to you to ask for food and water," Burgos said. "I don't know if they’re there with their families or by themselves. But they are everywhere."
Israel's military campaign has come under international scrutiny for both its tactics and its humanitarian consequences. While the IDF maintains that its strikes are aimed at Hamas infrastructure, the reality on the ground is far more complex. High-rise towers in Gaza City, bombed on the grounds that they house Hamas operations, also shelter hundreds of civilians. The repeated bombings of al-Mawasi, even as it is labeled a "safe zone," have left many Palestinians with nowhere to turn.
Health workers and aid organizations are struggling to cope. With hospitals operating at the edge of collapse, staff are forced to make impossible choices. The lack of resources, electricity, and safe passage for ambulances has compounded the crisis. Médecins Sans Frontières and other medical charities have warned that the closure of more hospitals will put thousands more lives at risk, especially among children and the most vulnerable.
The suffering of Gaza’s children is not limited to the physical injuries of war. The psychological toll is immense. Many have lost not only their homes but also their sense of safety and belonging. The orphan crisis is growing, with tens of thousands of children now facing an uncertain future—many traumatized, malnourished, and alone.
As the conflict grinds on, the stories from Nasser Hospital offer a window into a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in real time. The world may see numbers and headlines, but for those on the ground, it is the individual tragedies—like that of Khaled, the one-year-old with no family—that linger long after the bombs stop falling.
Amid the devastation, health workers like Burgos and Hussein continue to do what they can, offering comfort and care in the most trying of circumstances. But as the crisis deepens, the question remains: how many more children must face this nightmare alone?