'Wounded Child, No Surviving Family': The Pain of Gaza’s Orphans

Dalia Haidar - BBC News Arabic

Medics working in the Gaza Strip are using a specific phrase to describe a particular kind of war victim.

"There's an acronym that's unique to the Gaza Strip, it's WCNSF - wounded child, no surviving family - and it's not used infrequently," Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan who works with Doctors Without Borders told BBC News.

The expression captures the horror of the situation for many Gazan children. Their lives change in a second - their parents, siblings and grandparents are killed, and nothing is the same ever again.

The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October killing 1,200 people and taking around 240 others hostage, and Israel launched its military campaign. More than 15,500 people have been killed in the conflict, including about 6,000 children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.