Tamim Hassan Labad(in the green shirt and black hat) is the second child from our Gaza learning centers to be killed by the Israeli forces.
In August of last year, we published the story of Karim, a 9-year-old child from our learning and psychosocial support project in Gaza. He was killed by Israeli forces during an airstrike.
Today, we are writing about another child from the same project.
His name was Tamim Hassan Labad. He was 10 years old.
Last month, Tamim became the second child from our Gaza learning centers killed by Israeli forces. He is also one of more than 20,000 Palestinian children killed since the start of the genocide, according to a recent report by a U.N.-commissioned body. The report found that Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children—resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Gaza.
The killings of Tamim, and Karim before him, are not isolated tragedies. They are part of a well-documented pattern.
Like many children who came to our learning centers, Tamim wanted to learn, to play, to be with other children, and to find a small space that felt safer than everything outside.
Tamim Hassan Labad(in the white shirt and black hat) is the second child from our Gaza learning centers to be killed by the Israeli forces.
On June 4, 2026, he was killed along with his father, mother, and siblings, Mohammad and Rahaf, during an Israeli strike on their family apartment in the Al-Karama neighborhood, northwest of Gaza City.
Only one child survived: his sister Hala, who is 9 years old and also attends our activities.
Hala woke up without her family.
It is difficult to write this sentence. It is even more difficult to imagine what it means for a child to wake up and find that her parents, brothers, and sister are gone.
This is the reality children in Gaza are living. They come to our learning spaces carrying stories that are too heavy for their age. Some have lost their homes. Some have lost friends. Some, like Hala, have lost almost everything.
AFSC is currently supporting 1,498 children through five learning and psychosocial support centers in Gaza. Three centers are operating in southern Gaza, and two new centers have recently opened in Gaza City, one in Al-Karama area and one in Gaza City.
These centers are not only places for learning. For many children, they are places where they can sit with other children, draw, play, speak, breathe, and feel seen. They are spaces where children are reminded, even for a few hours, that they are still children.
But today, one of the children who used to come to these spaces is no longer here.
Tamim’s story comes after Kareem’s story. Two children. Two names. Two empty places in our learning spaces.
Although Hala survived the strike, she is now in the hospital with injuries and deep psychological trauma. Her face carries what no child should carry.
Writing about Tamim is not only to remember him. It is also to say that the world cannot stand by as Israeli forces continue to kill children in Gaza. Palestinian children should not be remembered only after they are gone. Like all children around the world, the children of Gaza should be protected, supported, and given the chance to live, learn, and grow.
Tamim will always remain part of our project’s memory, as Karim does.
And for Hala, and for every child who still comes to our centers, this work continues.
