Osama Muhammad Abu Mustafa was convinced he would become an international soccer superstar. Playing on a local team at the municipal stadium in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, he envisioned a future “like Ronaldo.” He was 13.
Even in the midst of war, he worked hard at fulfilling his dream. He was practicing soccer with his cousins when the bombs fell.
“I had the ball — and then a missile fell,” he told NBC News’ crew on the ground in Gaza in an interview in his home, where he was still recovering months after the July 3 airstrike.
What happened next is a blur, he said. But when he woke up, he was in a hospital bed, where he learned that one of his cousins, his aunt and her husband had been killed.
He had also lost his left leg.
“The occupation killed my dream,” Osama said. “They stole it from me.”
Now, Osama struggles to find the will to leave his hospital bed, even in a wheelchair. He stays indoors watching a constant stream of “Captain Majid,” a cartoon series about a young soccer player with dreams of playing in the World Cup.
Osama is one of hundreds of thousands of children whose lives have been shattered during Israel’s yearlong military offensive in Gaza, which has brought on a humanitarian catastrophe. More than 41,900 people have been killed, according to health officials in Gaza, since Israel launched its assault after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decades-long conflict.
Like the rest of Gaza’s children, who make up about half of the strip’s population of 2.2 million, Osama bears no responsibility for the Oct. 7 attacks, nor the devastating war that followed. But children like him are paying a high price, with more than 16,900 killed, including dozens of infants under the age of 1, during the intensive Israeli bombing and ground operations, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
With the Israeli government’s stated aim of destroying Hamas and seeing the remaining 97 hostages returned, bombs have flattened much of Gaza and driven an estimated 90 percent of the population from their homes — often multiple times. Now, hundreds of thousands live in crowded tent cities. Even designated safe zones are not safe.
Young people are especially vulnerable to disease and other health ailments ripping through Gaza. Malnutrition is rife among the young, and diseases like polio, hepatitis, and cholera are flourishing in the crowded and unsanitary conditions.
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