Gaza's children forced to work for a pittance amid war-torn ruins

On a dirt road, concertinaed slabs of concrete and wire drape from flattened buildings, next to the only remaining housing that was not blown apart in the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. A tall, neglected social housing block stands decrepit here in the northernmost point of the GazaStrip.

Two small boys shuffle between the ruined buildings with a plastic bucket, their tiny fingers working through the rubble. Aziz Rantasi, six, collects jagged pieces of cement shaped vaguely like stones. The fingernails on his tiny calloused hands are black.

A pre-teen boy pulls up on an old bright red BMX bicycle. Aziz cranes his neck to look in awe. “I have never ridden a bike, I’d really like one,” he says.