Isarel’s war on children

Israel's 11-month military campaign in Gaza is a war against children. Children are killed, wounded, permanently maimed, traumatised, buried beneath rubble, orphaned, disappeared. Children under 18 are estimated to make up 47 per cent of Gaza's 1.9 million displaced among the 2.3 million Palestinian population. The UN's children's agency UNICEF reports that more than 17,000 children have been slain. This is more than a third of the total of 41,000 fatalities. Among the dead children are 710 newborn babies. The number of children wounded is above 35,000. At least 1,500 have lost limbs or eyes.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said at the end of June that ten children a day are losing one or more limbs a day. Amputations can take pace "in quite horrible conditions, and sometimes without anaesthesia," he stated. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) only 17 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are partly functional. More than 22,500 people, 25 per cent of those wounded have "life changing injuries" requiring rehabilitation treatment "now and for years to come," WHO reports last week.

More than 20,000 children have been buried, trapped, detained, detained and reported missing, and 17,000 are separated from their parents. "Families are tortured by the uncertainty of the whereabouts of their loved ones. No parent should have to dig through rubble or mass graves to try and find their child’s body. No child should be alone, unprotected in a war zone. No child should be detained or held hostage," Save the Children’s regional director Jeremy Stoner said.

The story of Gaza's children began with Israeli bombing and shelling which forced families to flee their homes on foot, donkey cart, car and lorry. En route they met with gutted buildings, rubble, ailing and wounded people conveyed by relatives, and decomposing bodies of humans and animals. Pedestrian parents struggled to keep track of their frightened children. Exhausted, thirsty, hungry families reached an increasingly crowded place to stay. If they were fortunate, they found a corner in a room of an UNRWA school where there could be water, food and a few toilets for hundreds. Other-wise, they halted at a warehouse, or a partially destroyed building, or camp using whatever they could find as shelter: plastic sheeting, blankets, tree branches, palm fronds.

Once settled, families are forced to move on to Israeli designated locations by evacuation orders which exclude Palestinians from 89 per cent of Gaza and force them into tight, unsafe enclaves where there is no drinking or washing water, food, shelter, electricity, provisions for sewage and garbage. Insects and rats abound. Children suffer mosquito, fly and flea bites, develop skin diseases.

Parents are fearful, uncertain; children of all ages are traumatised by their experiences and have no normalcy, continuity, or security. They must brave Israeli bombs and bullets to fend for their families by fetching water from a standpipe or polluted well, bread from a bakery, or cooked food from charities. World Central Kitchen (WCK) branches are feeding tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians a day. Families depending on WCK grew desperate when its operations were briefly paused last April after Israel killed seven employees travelling in a convoy which had Israeli coordination.

The UN Trade and Development Agency says that Gaza’s gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen by a staggering 81 per cent, pushing the strip into an unprecedented economic crisis. "Massive job losses and soaring unemployment have worsened poverty, leaving most families in dire need of humanitarian assistance," UN News reports.

As Israel reduces the number of lorry loads of supplies entering Gaza, families face hunger and starvation. This started in the north and moved southwards and has become more acute after Israel seized control of the Gaza-Egypt crossing at Rafah in May. Children began to die of starvation, malnutrition and dehydration in June. At least 41 have died due to Israel's blockade, reduction of supplies, and destruction of water resources, farms and orchards.

Childhood traumas caused by demolition, destruction and displacement have been compounded by the absence of schools and universities since the war began. More than 625,000 displaced and traumatized Gazan school children face a second year without classes; 45,000 six-year-olds have never attended school.

United Nations Palestine refugee agency UNRWA director Philippe Lazzarini warned of a “lost generation.” He posted on X that Gaza schools "are not schools any more. When the war started UNRWA was forced to close all its schools turning them into shelters." He added, "Classrooms that used to welcome girls & boys are either overcrowded with displaced families or destroyed."

Even though 93 per cent of Gaza’s 564 schools have been damaged, many house one million homeless who are repeatedly bombed by Israel. At least 39,000 secondary school students who missed their final year of school could not graduate while 88,000 university students did not graduate this year as 80 per cent of Gaza's universities, technical institutes and colleges have been damaged or destroyed. Around 10,490 school and university students have been killed and 16,700 injured and 500 schoolteachers and university educators have been slain since October 7th when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,139 and capturing 251.

UNICEF said that "the absence of schooling [for younger children] threatens their cognitive, social, and emotional development. Parents are reporting significant mental health and psychosocial impacts among children, including feelings of increased frustration and isolation."

For older children, the disruption to their education has created uncertainty and anxiety, UNICEF reported. Disruptions have long-lasting impacts on achievements and personal development of students, increasing rates of child labour and early marriage.

Writing in the Israeli liberal daily Haaretz, despairing columnist Gideon Levi warmed Israelis against inhabiting a “country that lives on blood” due to the killings and crimes in Gaza. “We are in a genocidal reality; the blood of tens of thousands of people has flowed. He asked, are we “prepared to live like this?”