Gaza: The Largest Orphan Crisis in Modern History

Israel and America's Holocaust against Palestinians in Gaza has produced the largest orphan crisis in modern history. Approximately 39,000 children living in Gaza have lost at least one parent, and 17,000 have lost both. Israeli and American war crimes have plunged hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza into poverty, denied them access to crucial early childhood education, and forced them into child labor to support themselves and their surviving siblings. A nation's future is it's children. Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children in an attempt to prevent Palestinians from replacing Israeli occupation and apartheid with democracy and self-determination.

What We're Doing About it

My name is Abby Johnson. I'm an American living in California. I am launching this campaign to support the work of my friend Shaimaa living in Gaza. Shaimaa volunteers her time leading Quranic studies for approximately 60 orphans, most of them girls, in central Gaza three times per week. Not only do these lessons teach literacy skills and critical thinking, they also provide a weekly structure for children who've been denied a traditional educational environment by Israeli terrorists who, to date, have blown up over 90% of all schools in the Gaza Strip. Shaimaa also provides food to the students, a critically scarce basic resource in Gaza due to Israel's renewed campaign of mass starvation there. Up until now her work has only been sporadically supported by good Samaritans in Gaza. The goal of this fundraiser is to provided regular funds to support her work and if possible expand the program to better help as many vulnerable children as possible. Donations to this campaign will be used to increase the number of children who can participate in the program by funding educational materials, food, and clothing.

**an earlier version of the initiative misidentified Shaimaa's name as Noor. This was partially a mistranslation error and partially because Shaimaa and her husband were trying to keep news that she was pregnant a secret when this initiative was originally published.

Examples of goodie bags given out during reading sessions:

Reading session circa May 2026

Reading session circa March 2026

Relief for Palestinian Orphans