"I never got the chance to say goodbye"

"Can you take me to see my mom?"

The seven-year-old Palestinian girl rushed towards a UN worker in Gaza. "You drive in cars that the soldiers don't fire at," she said.

The worker asked the girl where her mother was.

"My mom was killed by shrapnel that hit her in the head," she said. "I pulled her body out of the house and laid her to rest under a tree so the house won't collapse over her body."

"Please take me back to her. I never had a chance to say goodbye!"

This girl's experience, which a Palestinian journalist shared with me, is the same for hundreds of children in Gaza. It is an experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Therefore, it is crucial to help them cope with the loss and trauma now, when they are most vulnerable.