In a speech on November 6, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “Gaza is becoming a cemetery for children.” Although his comments immediately attracted media attention, they nevertheless underestimated the reality of Palestinian children.
In Gaza, Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children at previously unimaginable rates. Over the past 40 days, Israeli forces have murdered more than 5,000 children in Gaza – and an additional 1,800 children have disappeared under the rubble of destroyed buildings, most presumed dead. This represents more than 6,800 Palestinian children killed over a 40-day period. This represents more than 170 children killed every day.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces have killed 54 Palestinian children since October 7, according to documents collected by Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP). This includes 38 Palestinian children killed in October alone, the highest number of Palestinian children killed in a single month since Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank began in 1967.
As with previous Israeli military offensives on Gaza, the Israeli attacks that DCIP investigated were extremely indiscriminate and disproportionate. The Israeli military targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure in densely populated civilian areas with wide-area explosive weapons. In other words, every bomb dropped by the Israeli army on Gaza potentially constitutes a war crime.
Make no mistake, Guterres was sounding the alarm because he knows Palestinian children are living and dying at an unprecedented time. Israeli forces killed more children in the first month of the war than state and non-state actors in other armed conflicts over the past two years combined, according to the UN chief’s own annual reports.
Nearly 50 percent of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are children. This incredibly young population has experienced 16 years of Israeli siege, which amounts to collective punishment. Palestinian children have faced repeated Israeli military offensives during which direct, indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and systemic impunity have been the norm.
Guterres knows the death toll is expected to rise sharply as Israeli authorities cut off Palestinians in Gaza from food, water, electricity, medical supplies and fuel, catapulting a captive civilian population into what he has described as a “nightmare” that “is a real nightmare.” crisis of humanity.
Among the population of Gaza, there are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women. This means that there are on average 160 deliveries daily.
Pregnant people struggle to access essential health services as the health system has collapsed. Postnatal people and babies in neonatal units are at serious risk due to dangerous fuel shortages, as Israeli authorities have banned the entry of fuel desperately needed to operate generators and life-sustaining equipment.
Survivors of Israeli bombings face increasing food insecurity and lack of clean water, leaving pregnant women and children at particular risk of disease, malnutrition and health complications.
British aid organization Oxfam said that due to the near total denial of humanitarian access by Israeli authorities, starvation is being used as a weapon of war against civilians in Gaza. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has noted that conditions are inhumane and continue to deteriorate with each passing day for more than 717,000 internally displaced people housed in 149 facilities across the country. UNRWA.
Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly rejected growing calls and pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza. Instead, Israeli forces have intensified their indiscriminate and direct attacks on residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, bakeries and solar panels.
While Israeli officials appear seemingly undeterred in their attempt to depopulate Gaza and create conditions that eliminate Palestinian lives, world leaders are showing, day after day, that they lack the courage to impose the end of the bombings and that they instead actively support the Israeli assault.
US President Joe Biden’s administration recently approved a $320 million deal with Israel to purchase US precision bombs and authorized the sale of thousands of assault rifles to Israeli authorities, despite concerns that they do not fall into the hands of Israeli settlers. the occupied West Bank. This is without counting the $14 billion in emergency funding for Israel requested from the US Congress.
These arms sales and financing make Washington even more complicit in the apparent mass atrocities the Israeli military is committing in Gaza.
For decades, the international community has supported and justified Israeli war crimes and the denial of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, prioritizing the security of the Israeli people over the lives of Palestinians. Palestinian children bear the brunt of this complicity and the failure of international law, protection and accountability mechanisms.
It is paralyzing to think that approximately 9 to 10 classrooms of students are erased from the Earth every day by the Israeli army’s intensive bombardment of residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
The Biden administration’s support for Israel’s actions and the genocidal green light it has given must be opposed. World leaders must heed the UN chief’s call for an immediate ceasefire and help end the massacre of Palestinian children.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.