Wearing caps and gowns and holding photos of their mothers and fathers, the children took to the stage on Monday in a ceremony organised by Al Wafaa Village, an orphan sanctuary in Khan Younis. (Screengrab)
In Gaza, a graduation ceremony meant to celebrate achievement became a haunting portrait of war’s toll, as more than 1,000 children orphaned by the conflict walked the stage with no parents left to applaud them.
Wearing caps and gowns and holding photos of their mothers and fathers, the children took to the stage on Monday in a ceremony organised by Al Wafaa Village, an orphan sanctuary in Khan Younis. It was the first graduating class since the centre opened in January.
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The video shared by Palestinian journalist Abdallah Al Attar showed children wiping away tears as they remembered parents lost in the war. The graduates, aged six to 13, will continue their studies at Al Wafaa when the new school year begins.
“Today, 1000 children from Al-Wafa Orphan Village graduated. A thousand smiles tried to hide a thousand pains. Between the rows were silent tears, tears of children who knew the meaning of loss before they knew the meaning of school… Each of them has a story that begins with the absence of a mother, the martyrdom of a father, or a house that became a memory. He graduates with the taste of tears, a broken childhood with her certificate in one hand, and a picture of the one you love in the other hand. Which wound is this with them from the beginning? And what future is built on the ruins of all this loss?,” Attar wrote along with the video.
Founded by speech and language pathologist Wafaa Abu Jalala, the centre offers shelter, psychological support and care to children who, she said, “lost everything overnight.”
Palestinian authorities estimate more than 5,000 families in Gaza have only one surviving member after 22 months of conflict, most of them children. The UN has listed Israel on its “list of shame” for grave abuses against children for the second consecutive year.
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Wearing caps and gowns and holding photos of their mothers and fathers, the children took to the stage on Monday in a ceremony organised by Al Wafaa Village, an orphan sanctuary in Khan Younis. (Screengrab) 
