An acronym unique to the Gaza Strip used among medical care workers right now is WCNSF -- "wounded child, no surviving family."

As she fought back tears, Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric intensive care doctor for Doctors Without Borders, told BBC that the acronym "has not been used infrequently in the last three weeks",

She continued that this "should not exist as an acronym."

According to Palestinian officials, as of November 20, at least 5,500 children have been killed since hostilities began -- one every ten minutes. Another 2,000 are presumed dead under the rubble of destroyed buildings. The UN secretary-general labelled the situation as a "graveyard for children".

To put the scale of the horrors into perspective, over eight times as many children have been killed in Gaza in a single month of the conflict as in Ukraine during the first year of the Russian war. Between 2008 and 2022, the war in Iraq killed fewer children.

Ghada Ageel, a third-generation Palestinian refugee wrote in The Guardian on November 15, recounting an emotional conversation between her four-year-old niece, Shahd, and her sister-in-law. Shahd asked, "Mom, is it painful to die? What is less painful, to die from a rocket or a tank shell?"

She also asked, "Mom, when I am killed, will you bury me next to my cousin Julia? I don't want to be left alone in the graveyard after people go home. I want to play with Julia."

On October 26, Julia was killed in an Israeli air raid that killed over 50 of Ghada's close family and neighbours in a block.

Such is the predicament of Gazan children where they have internalised the idea of death, making it a routine of their daily lives, a drill they have to go through. Much like packing a school bag, organising a game with a friend, or contemplating homework, they now think about how they or their friends might die.

The international community is aware of the plight of Palestinian children, and pleas are being made from various quarters to do something about it.

Addressing the UN Security Council on November 10, Lana Nusseibeh, UAE's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, began her speech by saying, "By now, we've all heard the heartbreaking acronym coined by healthcare workers in Gaza: WCNSF, which stands for 'wounded child, no surviving family'. I just want to let that sink in."

At this moment, a negotiation is underway between the Israeli government and Hamas for a temporary truce in fighting to allow the release of 50 hostages, But concerns remain over the fate that awaits over 1.7 million of Gaza's people, and how many more children may die or be categorised as WCNSF.