Today, Friday 3rd of July 2026, the conflict in Gaza passes a brutal milestone: 1,000 days since the escalation began.
For most of us, 1,000 days is just under three years. For children in Gaza, it is almost their entire adolescence - the years when they should be in school, building friendships, figuring out who they are. Instead, they have navigated displacement, loss, and fear that most adults will never know.
But they have not given up. And they want you to hear them.
For the first time since the escalation of the war, Save the Children's teams in Gaza have been able to interview children directly. Reem*, 16, Amani*, 14, and Bissan*, 14, agreed to share their stories - not because things are easy, but because they believe their voices matter.
What 1,000 days looks like from the inside
Amani* used to love public speaking. She was always the one putting her hand up. But when we first met her at one of Save the Children's Child Friendly Spaces in Gaza, she described a version of herself she barely recognised - shut down, anxious, constantly carrying the weight of a city under siege.
"We face so many pressures living in the Gaza Strip," she says. "When I come to this place, I feel like I've been born again."
Bissan* tells a similar story. When she first arrived, she didn't want to talk to anyone - not the facilitators, not the other girls. "I was scared that if I said something wrong, they would make fun of me or laugh at me."
And Reem* - who is 16 and in 10th grade, studying physics, chemistry, biology - describes how the war quietly changed the way she carried herself. "I was neglecting myself. I didn't communicate well with other people. The way I spoke was very harsh."
These are the entirely predictable result of children living through sustained conflict and trauma. What's remarkable is what comes next.
What a safe space can do
Through Save the Children's Child Friendly Spaces in Gaza, all three girls have accessed psychosocial support sessions, child protection awareness, and activities that have helped them process what they're living through.
Bissan* now approaches conflicts between her siblings with calm she didn't have before. Amani* is the school broadcaster, the one in front of the class. And Reem* has become a vocal advocate for girls' safety, particularly around the risks girls face when collecting food aid in overcrowded spaces.
"As adolescent girls, they taught us about safe and unsafe areas," Reem* says. "Some girls didn't attend and didn't benefit, so we need to tell them too."
In 2025, Save the Children and our partners reached over 1.8 million people in Gaza - providing mental health care, keeping health clinics running for mothers and babies, and delivering food, clean water and cash assistance.
We set up 26 temporary learning spaces and trucked clean water to more than 500,000 people. Every one of those numbers is a child like Reem*, or Amani*, or Bissan*.
They still have dreams
This is the thing that stays with you after reading their stories.
Bissan* wants to be a journalist or a fashion model. She also thinks she might have a talent for drawing. Amani* wants to travel, to study, to "live with human rights like girls in other countries." And Reem* is holding tightly to a dream she's had since before the war: "I want to study medicine, because my mom dreams of seeing her daughter become a great doctor. And I will make her dream come true."
These are not small dreams. And they are not naïve. They are the dreams of young people who have every reason to have given up, and haven't.
"It changed me and changed my life," says Bissan*. "Every child deserves to have their life changed too."
What happens next depends on us
The war in Gaza is far from over. Children are still living through it - right now, today, on this 1,000th day. The need for psychosocial support, clean water, healthcare and protection is not decreasing.
Your support makes it possible for Save the Children to keep these spaces open, keep these programmes running, and keep showing up for children like Reem*, Amani* and Bissan*.
Donate to our Gaza appeal today
Find out more about our work in the occupied Palestinian territory
Updated: 3 July 2026
Names marked with * have been changed to protect identities.
