Gaza's Clown.. Faces the Pain of Loss by Drawing Smiles on Children's Faces

From atop the rubble of destroyed homes in neighborhoods turned into silent concrete blocks in the Gaza Strip, Ahmed Abu Sukar wears the clown costume, standing amidst children circling around him with tired eyes and worn-out clothes, laughing for moments before fear and shock return to their faces.

The clown Abu Sukar (28 years old) continues to bring joy to the hearts of children in the Gaza Strip, defying the pain of losing his family, in an attempt to alleviate the effects of the Israeli genocide war on its youngest victims.

Abu Sukar lost his father, sister, sister's children, and his home due to the Israeli genocide, and despite all this pain, he still wants to draw smiles on the faces of everyone around him, especially the children.

Before the Israeli genocide war on the Gaza Strip, Abu Sukar - short in stature - chose to work in entertaining children and bringing joy to their hearts, which he continued to do despite the harsh reality imposed by the genocide war.

This time, Abu Sukar moves between the narrow alleys of the Bureij camp, where the effects of bombing are still visible on the walls and streets, trying to create a small space for joy, in a place where the sense of security is scarce, and any form of life is absent.

Gaza's children live in extremely harsh humanitarian and psychological conditions, due to the loss of shelter, lack of stability, repeated displacement, deprivation of education and healthcare, in addition to scenes of destruction and death.

Many of these children have lost one or both parents, while others suffer from severe psychological trauma due to the Israeli genocide war.

Although his heart is filled with sorrows, Abu Sukar has not abandoned his mission, and continues to draw smiles on children's faces and make others happy, at a time when they need thousands like him to alleviate the woes and tragedies of that war that lasted for two years.

Abu Sukar lives alone in his severely damaged home, where he finds solace in the children's laughter, and revives memories of his sister's children whom he lost.

He says: "When I make the children happy, I also escape the state I'm living in, I rejoice with them, while I make them happy with these simple costumes."

He adds: "It's difficult for me, but I always make sure to be the first to draw a smile despite the pain, because my life before the war was more beautiful with my family."

Abu Sukar points out that when he enters his crumbling home, images of his lost family members come back to his memory, noting that memories of his family are still alive in his mind.

"Family is everything in this life, when I enter the house and find no one, I wait for dawn to come out because I can't bear to stay alone," thus he describes the feeling of loss.

He explains that he extracted the clown costumes from under the rubble of his destroyed home, noting that these simple things make the children happy.

He says: "These are very ordinary costumes, but they make the children happy, they need to laugh, and I need to laugh more than them."

With a tone full of sorrow and grief, Abu Sukar expresses the difficulty of bearing the absence of his sister's children from his life, noting that despite the pain, he carries a beautiful spirit inside him, and will continue to do his best to make Gaza's children happy.

He adds: "We try to hold onto hope and continue living, despite the pain and sorrow."

In light of the collapse of the health system in Gaza, children do not receive any psychological support, which makes individual attempts like Abu Sukar's initiatives a temporary outlet that alleviates the intensity of the shock, even if for hours.

According to data from the Gaza Health Ministry, the Israeli war killed more than 20,000 children, while tens of thousands were injured with varying wounds.

More than 56,000 children lost one or both parents, adding to a new generation of orphans living a double tragedy between loss and fear, under a suffocating siege that prevents the entry of aid, medicine, and infant milk.

The data indicates that hundreds of children were killed before completing their first year, while others were born during the war, facing life from their first moments under bombardment and deprivation.

On October 8, 2023, Israel launched a genocide war on the Gaza Strip that lasted two years, resulting in the killing of more than 70,000 Palestinians, and injuring more than 171,000, most of them children and women, alongside widespread destruction affecting 90% of the infrastructure, including homes, schools, and health centers.

The war, which ended with a ceasefire that entered its first phase on October 10 last year, caused one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world, with the spread of famine, collapse of basic services, and turning millions of Palestinians into displaced people living in tents and shelters lacking the minimum necessities of life.