In 15 months, the number of children in Gaza has been reduced to a statistic. Reported death tolls give a specific number of children killed. Malnutrition and hunger reportedly affect and kill a number of children. Even the cold weather was measured by how many babies were killed in makeshift tents.

But hidden behind these numbers are the heartbreaking stories of Palestinian children whose childhoods were cut short. As a nurse working at Shifa Medical Center and later in makeshift clinics in displacement camps, I came across many painful stories of the suffering of children during this horrific war.

Seeing so many children suffer makes the pain of surviving a genocide even more unbearable.

In early November 2023, when I was on duty in the emergency department, another violent explosion occurred, and several injured people were rushed to the emergency room. I went to care for one of them: 10-year-old Tara.

When I checked on her condition, I found that her arm had been amputated and her body was severely burned. She cried profusely and asked about her aunt. I don't know what to say. I gave her painkillers to calm her down a bit.

I tried talking to her to ease her tears. She told me that she had lost her entire family due to a previous explosion in her home. She's not home, so she's the only survivor. While she was being taken in by her aunt and living in her home, a missile hit a neighboring building. She was injured by the explosion and shrapnel.

As the painkillers wore off, Tara cried profusely again from the physical and mental pain that was happening to her. It was heartbreaking to see this little girl in so much pain. She was supposed to be going to school, playing with her friends and hugging her family. And she was here alone, suffering unbearable pain and sorrow. How can she move on with her life?

I cry after every visit to her bed. She stayed in the hospital for two weeks and was eventually discharged to her aunt.

Tara was just one of the many children I saw in the Shifa emergency room before we were deported by the Israelis in late November. Most of the bomb victims I treat are children. Many people have been injured like Tara, some much more seriously than she was. The vast majority of them had witnessed family members being torn to pieces, bleeding to death, or being seriously injured. Too many people are orphaned.

When I moved to a displacement camp in the South, the suffering of children I saw did not diminish. I volunteered at a medical point in the camp where many of the patients were children.

One day in January 2024, a worried mother came to us with her 7-year-old son Yusuf. She told us that he had been ill for several weeks and she had no idea what was hurting him. When we examined him, we determined that he had viral hepatitis and was in the advanced stages of the disease. He was in severe pain with vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever.

There's not much we can do for him. Yusef died a few days later.

His death didn't even become a statistic. He was not killed by an Israeli bomb, so he was not added to the death toll reported that day.

But he remains a victim of this genocidal war. He would have been saved if Gaza's health care system had not been destroyed.

Children in Gaza suffer other harms, and as a medical professional, even if I had all the medicine and equipment in the world, I wouldn't be able to help them. These are the psychological wounds endured by every child survivor of this genocide.

In July, I spoke to 11-year-old Ahmed in an area of ​​Khan Younis where children fly kites. I went there to talk to “healthy” kids—kids I couldn’t see in the makeshift clinic.

"There is nothing worse than this situation. The child's situation is like a shoe!" he told me.

I was surprised by his reaction and laughed.

I asked him: "What hurt you the most in this war?" He answered with heavy eyes and only one word: loss. He lost his mother.

He recalled: "The occupying forces launched a crazy attack on us and bombed our entire residential area. As for my mother, I did not see her because that day I was hit in the head by shrapnel close to the skull and was sent to hospital. To the intensive care unit. Three days later, when I woke up and called my mother, they told me Israel had killed her, and that was it."

I caught myself; I didn't want to cry in front of him. I'm sure I'm weaker than him at this moment.

No child deserves to live such a miserable life. No child should suffer from a preventable disease; no child should be burned or maimed by a bomb. No child should ever see a parent die.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.