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Nearly two dozen Israeli children lost both their mother and father in the October 7 Hamas terror attack that sparked the escalating war, while scores more children lost one parent.<\/p>\n
In an interview with this masthead, senior Israeli official Liora Abramovich confirmed the parents of 17 boys and girls were murdered in the incursion that has provoked fierce scrutiny of the Netanyahu government\u2019s border security measures.<\/p>\n
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An installation of strollers with the faces of children kidnapped by Hamas, in Tel Aviv, on Saturday.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n Another four children had one parent murdered and another go missing or taken hostage, while a further 100 Israeli children aged between 10 months and 16 years had one parent murdered and the other survive.<\/p>\n Sisters aged three and seven watched from the back seat of a car as their parents were killed in the front seats attempting to flee the scene of a siege, Abramovich said. The girls were taken to a synagogue and taken care of by people unknown to them before their aunt and uncle were contacted and were able to collect them.<\/p>\n In another case, a six-year-old boy watched his parents be shot and killed and was himself wounded by a bullet but survived.<\/p>\n Destroyed furniture and charred walls are seen in a Kibbutz Nir Oz home that came under attack during the Hamas invasion on October 7.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n Abramovich, a top legal official at Israel\u2019s Social Affairs Ministry responsible for the care of the orphaned children, said her agency\u2019s top priority was to fast-track foster arrangements and ensure the children were in the safe hands of relatives.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re embracing the children,\u201d she said. \u201cWe know the social services are working day and night to help all the families.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to what we\u2019ve heard from the social workers who have met with the children and their relatives, there is a wide range of reactions and expressions to the horrors\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the children are not speaking at all. Others don\u2019t stop talking and describing every detail to anyone who asks and talks to them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are regressive behaviours such as bed-wetting, fear of sleeping alone, fear of loud noises. It is too early to tell how the effects of the events of that day and the continuing stress they are experiencing will present themselves in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Hamas\u2019 unprecedented attack, which Israel said killed more than 1400 people \u2013 1100 civilians and 300 soldiers \u2013 Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip and killed more than 10,000 people, including 4100 children and 2640 women, according to figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry.<\/p>\n A Palestinian child receives treatment at Nasser Medical Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, after Israeli air raids.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n Israel\u2019s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not acknowledged any personal failure in his government\u2019s inability to foresee or react swiftly to the Hamas attack. But analysts have predicted a political reckoning for the long-time leader after the war.<\/p>\n Netanyahu caused public uproar and a rift within his war cabinet when he posted on X, formerly Twitter, saying \u201cat no time and no stage was a warning given regarding war intentions of Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOn the contrary, all security officials, including the head of army intelligence and the head of the Shin Bet [Israel\u2019s internal security service], estimated that Hamas was deterred and interested in an arrangement,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n The post was deleted and in a second post, about 10 hours later, Netanyahu said: \u201cI was wrong,\u201d adding that his earlier comments \u201cshould not have been made and I apologise for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Abramovich said that, on a personal note, her country was experiencing one of its toughest moments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going through a really, really terrible [time]. Even those of us who are at work, we\u2019re also dealing with it. I have two sons and two sons-in-law drafted.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n Get a note directly from our foreign <\/i><\/b>correspondents <\/i><\/b>on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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