For over 19 months, the Israeli forces have waged a brutal war on Gaza, with Palestinian children paying the highest price. Since 7 October 2023, over 50,000 children have been killed or wounded, according to Palestinian officials and UNICEF. Residential areas, schools, and shelters have become death zones, with children increasingly targeted as part of what rights groups describe as a systematic campaign of extermination.
Disturbing images from the ground show the bodies of toddlers pulled from rubble and infants lifeless in morgues. The scale of the horror reveals a horrifying truth: children are not collateral damage, they are among the primary victims of Israel’s war strategy, which disregards every international protection meant to shield them.
Ayed Abu Eqtaish, of Defense for Children International – Palestine, condemned Israel’s deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure, calling it an organised campaign of genocide. “They bomb places that should be safe havens,” he said, noting that starvation, siege, and bombardment are used in tandem to break Gaza’s population, especially its children.
UNICEF reports that over one million children have been trapped under siege for more than 90 days, with no access to adequate food or clean water. Lifesaving nutrition supplies have run out, and 21 treatment centres have shut down, leaving thousands of malnourished children with nowhere to go and little hope of survival.
While these atrocities unfold, the world remains largely silent. Governments issue statements, but take no action. Meanwhile, Gaza’s children continue to die, by hunger, by fire, and in the ruins of a world that has failed them.
Source : Safa News
