The soil of Gaza is soaking the blood of thousands of children who are hardly aware of self-defence techniques. The scenario is somewhat similar in at least 10 countries in the world, including Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. Infanticide has been going on for decades in these countries. Perhaps, reports related to violent deaths, including that of children, do not bother the global community anymore. Else, they should have taken to the streets, condemning the Israeli atrocities (especially against the Palestinian children) in Gaza.

Save the Children has mentioned in its latest report that the number of children killed in just three weeks of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip alone since the Israel-Hamas conflict that began on October 7, 2023 has crossed the number of children who have been killed annually in various wars and conflicts in different parts of the globe since 2019. Thousands of children buried under the rubble have stopped crying in the Gaza Strip. Still, rescuers have often heard the wailing of children in war-ravaged Gaza. Leaving the bodies of her parents lying in the rubble, two-year-old Larin Hussain has found her place in a hospital. Meanwhile, three-year-old Ahmed Sabat has been transferred to a refugee camp. No one can say for sure how many minutes or hours or days they will survive there, as the Israeli fighter jets are constantly targeting hospitals and refugee camps in Gaza.

UNICEF: Children in Gaza need life-saving support

As per the Geneva Convention as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), no one can attack schools, hospitals and refugee camps under any circumstances. However, both terrorists and those, who are fighting War against Terror, are violating the Laws of War, as well as International Human Rights Protection Laws.

In a report published on May 5, 2023, UNICEF stated: “… seven children have been killed or injured on an average in every single hour (in South Sudan). It is important to note that these reports of children killed or injured are only those who had contact with a medical facility. So, as ever, the reality is likely to be much worse. We don’t have case-by-case information on each child, though it is data from the conflict hotspots of Khartoum and the Darfurs.” (UNICEF Report) According to the UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide, more than 28,500 children have been killed in conflict-torn Afghanistan in the last 17 years (since 2005). Meanwhile, Save the Children has stated in another report that more than 550,000 children under the age of one perished as a result of the horrific conflicts worldwide between 2013 and 2017. Currently, around 420 million children in the world are forced to live in areas affected by armed conflicts.

Like natural disasters, children and women become the ultimate victims of a conflict or a war. “In all wars, it is children who suffer first and suffer most,” stressed UNESCO. Even if defenceless children somehow manage to survive the loss of their loved ones, their existence is endangered. In a report published on July 9, 2018, Save the Children stated that “Wafa, aged four, and Shadia (two) were badly injured in an airstrike in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah in June 2018. Their parents were killed in that airstrike. Since the incident, Wafa has had difficulty in sleeping; she has nightmares and shouts out in her sleep. She cries much of the time and cannot stand anyone, even her family, being in her room. Wafa had surgery to remove a piece of shrapnel in her head. It left a 15cm hole in her skull. Following that operation, her body swelled up as a result of additional fragments of shrapnel in her body. She had two further operations to remove them. Save the Children’s team in Hodeidah is supporting Wafa and Shadia’s medical care, providing psychosocial support and assisting the extended family to help the girls heal. Wafa and Shadia may never fully recover from the attack they suffered. They may carry physical and mental scars for the rest of their lives“.

Meanwhile, wings of vultures are yet to cover the sky of Gaza, and the Palestinians have not experienced the silence of the graveyard so far. One can still hear the sound of bombardments on residential complexes, hospitals and refugee camps there. One can also feel the pain of thousands of injured citizens, including women and children, who would die at any moment.

Not a single Gazan has enjoyed the right to live a normal life, as their land has been besieged by the Israeli blockade (by land, water and air) for the past 16 years. Now, it has become difficult to imagine the psychological impact of continuous bombings on the minds of Palestinian children. According to a report prepared by Save the Children in 2022, four out of every five children in Gaza were traumatised by fear, anxiety and depression. The children, who have survived the genocide and terrible destruction going on there in the pretext of war (against Hamas), have already witnessed the death of their parents, siblings, relatives and friends.

It is obvious that a child’s mind cannot bear the shock of the inhuman sorrow and pain. Psychologists are of the opinion that these children cannot live a healthy normal life even after their survival. Most probably, time, too, cannot erase their horrific memories.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das