At a refugee camp in Rafah, Palestinian children play with broken electricity lines that no longer work to distract themselves from hunger, thirst and the fear of being killed.
They are unable to go to school and many of them are now orphans.
Among them is Lama Abu Jamous, 9, who became a recognised journalist through her work highlighting the plight of children during the war to her 851,000 followers online.
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During the conflict, several of her loved ones have been killed and her family displaced, but she continues to capture the horrors she sees daily for the world to see.
It’s a crucial insight into the reality of a war that’s killed almost 29,000 people in four months, according to the health ministry in Gaza, with access for western journalists restricted unless they are with an Israeli Defence Forces escort.
“A lot of kids here, instead of going to schools and receiving an education, they are now selling stuff or collecting firewood,” Abu Jamous told 7NEWS.com.au.
“People here are resorting to eating animal feed, even my friends are now eating that.
“People can’t think straight and don’t know where to go and what to do.
“My friends and I like to play together so we can forget the sound of the bombs being dropped on houses. We try to forget everything, but this war is not letting us forget anything.
“It’s not letting us forget the martyrs, the injured, the wounded, the body parts, everything.”
Fears war moving into safe zone
Her family, originally from Khan Yunis, are among the 1.4 million Gazans crammed into Rafah, most of them living in tents.
Inside the family tent, there are only a few blankets, which do not keep them adequately warm.
When it rains, Abu Jamous said, the family become soaked and at night they are kept awake by the sounds of drones and bombs.
Abu Jamous said she misses her home, her friends and her school.
“We also want to live safely in our own homes and to live freely. But instead we are here living in tents in comparison to the rest of the world who are living safely in their homes,” she said.
“My school got bombed, and I really love my school. I do not know anything about my friends despite me messaging them daily, they are not responding.
“I am getting worried about them, I am scared for my teachers,” she said.
Israel designated Rafah a safe zone, but has now launched airstrikes on the city that’s become home to half of Gaza’s population.
Israel has said it is targeting Hamas militants who hide among civilians and were responsible for the October 7 incursion that killed 1200 people and took more than 200 hostages.
It’s now reportedly planning a ground invasion in the city despite international outcry, including from United States officials.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference on Saturday, “Whoever tells us not to operate in Rafah, is telling us to lose the war”.
In a joint statement last Thursday, the leaders of Australia, New Zealand and Canada said a planned ground invasion in Rafah would be devastating.
“Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas,” the statement said.
Abu Jamous stressed there was nowhere else to turn for families like hers in Rafah, with up to 60 per cent of buildings on the Gaza Strip damaged or destroyed.
“We are now at the final station, and we don’t know where to go from here for the remaining days,” she said.
Children dying or at risk of famine
Abu Jamous’ parents and extended family help record her videos as she goes around parts of Gaza interviewing people.
Abu Jamous risks her life to maintain the coverage, with 88 other journalists killed so far amid the conflict.
“The reason why I became a journalist is so I can show people our struggles and what is happening to us,” she said.
“They are bombing buildings, bombing houses, bombing schools, they are bombing centres, they are bombing everything.
“We are so tired from the war … My aunty has become a martyr from the war, my mum’s cousins, their wives, my aunties, they have all become martyrs.
“Even the kids have become martyrs and there is no one left for them.”
The daily death toll in the Israel-Hamas war is higher than any other major conflict in the 21st century, Oxfam International reported.
Every 10 minutes, a child is killed in Gaza, according to the World Health Organisation.
The most heart-wrenching of Abu Jamous’ online videos are those of children struggling under the conditions, with food, water and shelter scarce.
“It is raining, and it is very cold, and the tent is breaking, and my father is trying to save it, and we don’t have any blankets,” a young boy tells Abu Jamous in an interview.
“They bombed our house and we ran away in the streets, babies started crying, you can see blood on the wall,” another child says outside a collapsed building that was once his home.
Humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations, raised the alarm starvation was being used as a weapon as Israel restricted access to aid with a blockade that’s also choked electricity and medical supplies.
The International Court of Justice last month found “acts and omissions alleged by South Africa to have been committed by Israel in Gaza appear to be capable of falling within the provisions of the (Genocide) Convention”.
The allegation of genocide was brought to the UN’s top court by South Africa, but a final ruling is yet to be made.
The ICJ ordered six provisional measures to prevent genocidal actions in Gaza, including that Israel increase humanitarian aid, as the UN has warned Gaza is on the brink of famine.
Save The Child has reports of widespread diarrhoea and disease as a result of malnutrition.
Care International spoke to a 27-year-old mother living in a small house in Rafah with 25 other people and supplied the interview to 7NEWS.com.au.
She described having little food but canned goods, no diapers for her four-month-old baby and being unable to vaccinate the baby because of the fear of being killed.
“What scares me the most now is losing my family. They are everything to me … I am also afraid of dying without my children,” the woman said.
“We fear death; we fear not waking up every time we try to sleep. Our lives are ones of pain and exhaustion.”
The latest round of negotiations for a ceasefire have been unsuccessful, leaving the future of those in Rafah and the rest of Gaza uncertain.
Abu Jamous said sharing harrowing stories with the hope the world would listen and act was the best she could do.