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Israel’s genocidal war has destroyed families and livelihoods across Gaza, leaving more than 39,000 children orphaned, while the widespread destruction has deprived over 80 percent of the workforce of their sources of income. Amid deepening poverty and the absence of alternatives, an increasing number of children have been forced into the streets, resorting to begging as their only means of survival.

Some estimates indicate that hundreds of children in Gaza currently engage in street begging, a direct reflection of economic collapse, the loss of breadwinners, and weak social protection networks, amid the ongoing war and the destruction it has wreaked on families and the economic infrastructure alike.

In Al-Maghazi refugee camp I met 11-year-old Ahmed, who lost his home in northern Gaza after it was completely bombed. The house was part of the land seized by the occupation, preventing his family from erecting their tent in the original location of their home, forcing them to move to the southern part of the territory.

Ahmed has now become the sole provider for his small family after his father was killed in July while going to collect U.S.-backed humanitarian aid. He stood in one of the camp’s streets on the day I met him, begging passersby as rain fell and his feet remained bare. When asked why he was on the street, he quietly told me: “I need three shekels to buy a loaf of bread.”

His sad gaze and young age reflect a harsh reality in which children are forced to beg to meet their families’ basic needs after losing their breadwinner and witnessing most of their families’ sources of income destroyed by the war.

During our conversation, Ahmed showed visible frustration when asked why he was on the street. He said, in a childlike tone of anger: “Why do I have to go out asking........

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