GAZA / MISSING CHILDREN
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STORY: GAZA / MISSING CHILDREN
TRT: 03:55
SOURCE: UN NEWS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 04 JULY 2024, DEIR AL-BALAH, CENTRAL GAZA STRIP
1. Various shots, Abdullah Abu Al-Qumsan putting up flyer on street, flyer
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Abu Al-Qumsan, Palestinian:
“Now, on an almost daily basis we go to the streets, alleys and roads to put up Fouad’s photo informing people about his status when he went missing. we don’t know where he went missing”
3. Various shots, flyer, Abdullah Abu Al-Qumsan in his tent
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Abu Al-Qumsan, Palestinian:
“We were at Jabalia camp on 31 October 2023. Around 2:30 pm, we were targeted by more than one missile. It was a massacre witnessed by the entire Gaza Strip. As a result, my father and mother were martyred, and my son Fouad and I were under the rubble. We were treated after more than half an hour. Upon rescue, I informed the rescuers that my son Fouad, who was one year and nine months old at that time, was in good health and was alive and did not lose consciousness. He was treated by a paramedic, and after that we did not know where he was taken to any hospital. We searched for him in hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, but he was not there. We searched in the refrigerators among the bodies, but he was not there.”
5. Wide shotAbdullah Abu Al-Qumsan walking
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdullah Abu Al-Qumsan, Palestinian:
“Ultimately, we only found this way, print paper of his pictures, and we paste them on the streets so that we can inform people about him.”
7. Various shots, flyer
In an unusual scene, flyers for missing children have spread among the tents of the displaced and some populated areas in the Gaza Strip due to the war.
Abdullah Abu Al-Qumsan is one of those who lost their children in the war.
He sets out every morning to post search flyers for his child, Fouad, who went missing after being injured in October 2023.
Abu Al-Qumsan told UN News correspondent that he was at his relatives’ house in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on October 31, 2023, and at approximately 14:30 local time, an air strike struck the house, killing his father and mother, and he and his child, Fouad, stayed half an hour under the rubble until they were rescued.
He added that he was hugging his son, who was conscious and was treated by a paramedic, but he did not know at the time to which hospital he was taken to.
Abu Al-Qumsan mentioned that after searching in the morgue refrigerators to no avail, he found in the archives of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City details that matched the specifications of his child, an unidentified child who arrived at the hospital with minor injuries.
Abu Al-Qumsan says that until now he does not know who took his child or who took care of him until today.
Abdullah did not leave any means but to take in search of his child Fouad, whether through the media or social media, until he was recently forced to resort to paper posters with Fouad’s picture and began spreading them among the tents of the displaced and the streets, seeking a glimmer of hope that would tell him about the fate of his child.
Abdullah Abu Al-Qumsan adds that during his nine-month search for his child, he encountered similar and more difficult cases of families searching for their children.
Fouad's photo is not the only one spreading among the displaced people's tents.
UN News camera monitored many other posters searching for missing children during the war and the displacement journey that people are experiencing in the Gaza Strip.
From time to time, posts spread on social media searching for missing persons, some of them children who lost their way back to the displacement tent.