Although life was tough even before the war in the tiny strip of Gaza, the misery, beyond the destruction of critical infrastructure, including roads, schools, and hospitals, is being further compounded by massive loss of life.
As difficult as all this deadliest conflict for children in modern times is to read and to watch, it's important the world does not look away. The horrors of Gaza are almost unspeakable!
This confirms what António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, said earlier: “If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza. There are few places in the world that evoke such a strong visceral response as Gaza.”
In all wars, it is children who suffer the most. No matter how much the soldiers try to limit this. Since the attack on October 7, 2023, and the unrelenting bombardment of the Gaza Strip that followed, children have been killed, abducted, maimed, and exposed to deeply distressing events.
According to the latest UN report, during the first six months of Israel’s war in Gaza, nearly 70 per cent of the fatalities were women and children, of which 44 per cent were children, with the biggest single category aged five to nine, followed by those aged 10 to 14, and then those aged up to and including four.
The UN estimates that some 40 per cent of the people in Gaza have lost their identification cards and other documents, making it harder to identify unaccompanied children and reunite them with their families.
The report conforms the Oxfam report that too revealed that more women and children have been killed by Israel in Gaza over the past year than in any other conflict over the past two decades in a single year.
However, a study by The Lancet Journal showed that the figures being made available to the world could be inexact due to the peculiar circumstances, including the destruction of infrastructure and limited resources in the Gaza Strip, that make data collection difficult.
A social worker in Gaza said in his observations on the situation in Gaza that people are “crammed together in such a small area and sustaining continuous bombardment with no escape. It’s casualties beyond belief."
It is not a fly-on-the-wall comment by an onlooker. This is the ground reality, as the United Nations confirms that “there are unprecedented levels of killings, death, injury, starvation, illness, and disease.”
In this is the short film “One Year In,” which provides a raw insight into life in Gaza that is rarely seen in the mainstream media.
In addition to sharing stories of the realities of life in Gaza, the film released by the Medical Aid for Palestinians calls for “meaningful action from the international community to enforce a ceasefire, uphold international law, and protect Palestinians from potential genocide.”
At the beginning of this month, Unicef warned that the situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic. “The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and violence," it cautioned the world leaders.
Depriving children of access to food and essential services puts their lives at risk, as do attacks on civilian areas and infrastructure, including health centres, schools, and water and sanitation systems.
As reports indicate, Gaza’s children are suffering record levels of psychological trauma and terror. Many are left with no place to stay and are facing an acute shortage of food and safe drinking water.
The children of Gaza deserve the chance to heal. They still have dreams, they still have hopes, and they still have aspirations. But what is lacking is the right support mechanism.
As Unicef insists, “A child is a child. Children everywhere must be protected at all times and must never come under attack." Or the judgement and the revenge of those children, after their survival, may be unsparing, indiscriminate, and terrible, too!
All parties to the conflict should comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law. The atrocities in Gaza must end, but this cannot happen through words; it must happen through action.
After all, events in Gaza represent a deeply rooted moral failure for which all must share some blame!
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