Gazan parents are writing their children's names on their bodies so they can be identified if killed, report says

• Gazan parents are writing their children's names on their bodies so they can be identified, per CNN.
• A Gazan doctor told the outlet the only way dead children can be identified is through that writing.

Gazan parents are so worried about their children dying that they are writing their names with black ink on their bodies so that doctors can identify them in hospitals, according to CNN.

"We received some cases where the parents wrote the names of their children on the legs and abdomen," Dr Abdul Rahman Al Masri, the head of the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, told the outlet.

Hamas' terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, killed more than 1,300 people, including children. Israel has since pummeled the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, killing more than 4,300 Palestinians, including more than 1,700 children, according to the Gazan Health Ministry, the Associated Press reported.

Gazan parents worry that "anything could happen" to their children, and no one will be able to identify them, Al Masri told CNN.

He added: "This means that they feel they are targeted at any moment and can be injured or martyred."

Children account for almost half of the region's population, and they are often found in hospitals among the victims, a hospital supervisor told CNN.

The supervisor of the room at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, who refused to be named, told the outlet that parents writing their children's names on body parts is a "new phenomenon."

"Many of the children are missing; many get here with their skulls broken... and it's impossible to identify them; only through that writing do they get identified," he added.

As Israel's "complete siege" continues, Gaza's health system is on the brink of collapse, with hospitals running out of medicine, water, and electricity required to provide treatment, Palestinian health officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross warned earlier this month.

Dr Iyad Issa Abu Zaher, the hospital's director general, said that after Israel's bomb attacks nearby Saturday night into Sunday, the hospital is at full capacity and can't take in any new patients.

"The injured are at the door of operation theater rooms and on top of each other, each waiting their turn for an operation," he told CNN.

The first two aid convoys reached Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah crossing over the weekend, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said in a post on X on Sunday.

"But they need more, much more," Martin Griffiths added.

In a statement on Sunday, the United Nations relief group in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA, said the lack of fuel in the first aid convoy means the region will run out of water, electricity, and functioning hospitals in the next three to four days.

"No fuel will further strangle the children, women, and people of Gaza," said Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Palestine.