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Since Tuesday evening, horrific scenes from Gaza City’s al-Ahli Arab Hospital have emerged. Bloodied women, children and nursing staff lie motionless on the floor. Some have been dismembered, placed in piling body bags.
A significant number of children were among the nearly 500 killed in the attack, adding to the heavy toll of the Israeli military offensive launched on Oct. 7 in response to Hamas’ surprise attack.
In recent days, over 30 percent of Palestinians killed in Gaza were minors.
According to a report released on Monday by the non-profit organization Defence for Children International (DCI), out of the 2,808 victims killed in Israeli air strikes since the start of the war, at least 1,000 were children.
One out of every two people in Gaza is under 18 years old and nearly 500 minors currently remain trapped under the rubble, said the Hamas-run health authorities.
These figures, however, cannot be independently verified, since access to Gaza is limited.
“Given the ongoing bombardments, which are restricting movement, it is very difficult for humanitarian organizations to verify the number of children killed,” said Ammar Ammar, head of advocacy and communications at UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa office. “What is certain is that the number of child victims is increasing by the hour.”
Israeli military strategy
Among the photos circulating on the social media accounts of Palestinians in Gaza are images of children writing their first names and national identity numbers on the palms of their hands, so their families can identify them if they die.
Over the past ten days or so at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, the nursing staff has been receiving dozens of children by the hour. Having survived the rubble, they arrive with faces covered in blood and dust.
To urgently identify young victims transported to al-Shifa, the city’s busiest hospital, staff now use the acronym: “W.C.N.S.F,” which stands for “Wounded Child No Surviving Family.”
Behind the heavy child death toll is an Israeli military strategy that Israel can no longer hide. Officially, the Israeli authorities reiterated their objective of “minimizing damage to civilians” for several days, but these claims are contradicted on the ground.
“According to our documentation, civilians are being deliberately targeted by the Israeli military operation,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, director of the accountability program within DCI’s Palestinian division. “In the initial days, numerous residential buildings and towers were bombed without any warning given to residents to evacuate, resulting in their deaths, including children,” Abu Eqtaish said.
“The relentless Israeli shelling is also a weapon of terror to push the population to evacuate certain areas of the Gaza Strip.”
As things stand now, Israel might be gearing up for a ground offensive on Gaza. On Oct. 13, Israeli authorities ordered the evacuation of Gaza City’s 1.1 million inhabitants — half the population — to the south of the coastal enclave. This is an impossible operation, as some roads were left completely cut off after the air strikes.
By Oct. 16, thousands of people had made their way south, when Israel hit the Rafah crossing connecting Gaza to Egypt.
According to Abu Eqtaish, the military campaign in Gaza appears to be a repetition of the “Dahieh doctrine,” which was put forth by an Israeli general following the destruction of the southern Beirut Shiite neighborhood of the same name during the 2006 Lebanon-Israeli war. The doctrine justifies the use of disproportionate force against civilian areas on the pretext that they house military bases.
Seeking to minimize risk on its soldiers, Israel heavily relies on its air force. In Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, this strategy primarily impacts civilians, especially since Palestinian operatives seek refuge underground.
“Israel could argue that the high toll of civilian casualties, particularly children — a collateral damage to the intensive air bombardment — is due to the fact that Hamas fighters, weapons and infrastructure are spread throughout the Gaza Strip,” said Ka Lok Yip, Assistant Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s Faculty of Law.
“It is very difficult to accurately gauge the situation with the limited information available in these circumstances,” Yip added.
Hospitals at a ‘breaking point’
Children are the first victims of the total siege the Israeli Defense Minister imposed on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 9.
Exacerbated by a blockade that has already been in place for 16 years, the today Gaza is almost completely deprived of drinking water, electricity and food.
As a result, many inhabitants use wastewater from wells, which increases the risk of disease, as UNICEF recently warned.
“Even when drinking water is available, there’s no fuel to bring it to trapped families,” said social and health researcher Khuloud Saba.
“If no emergency aid reaches the affected populations quickly, the lack of water and or contaminated water will compromise the lives of the youngest, especially those under five, given their limited immune system,” she added.
This is not to mention that many infants will not survive the shortage of milk and nutrients if the war continues.
The siege also has a direct impact on hospitals.
“Before this war, Gazans who could afford it would go to the West Bank, Jerusalem or Israel for treatment, because the health system had been weakened by years of blockade,” Abu Eqtaish said.
The entire population is now forced to seek medical care in Gaza, while the Rafah border crossing with Egypt — the only crossing out of the three that lead in and out of Gaza that is not controlled by Israel — is still closed.
Gaza’s hospitals, already overwhelmed with the sick and injured, are at a “breaking point,” cautioned the World Health Organization on Oct.13. Staff members are compelled to ration their rapidly depleting fuel supplies.
The situation directly places premature babies and critically ill newborns in jeopardy, since incubators cannot be operated due to the circumstances.
In some hospitals, like the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes, Gaza’s second largest, the intensive care wards is mostly filled with children under three years old.
This, however, has not prevented Israel from directly targeting hospitals.
On Oct. 13, the WHO had already counted 34 attacks on health services since the start of the war. Following the evacuation order issued to Gaza residents, some medical personnel have been forced to release patients who are at risk.
Amid the bombardments, the siege, and the psychological toll, the war’s aftermath weighs heavily on the children who survive, especially the orphaned and those referred to as “W.C.N.S.F.”
“Children lose not only their parents, siblings, caregivers, and friends but also their homes, their means of livelihood and their schools,” Saba said. “Their mental health is significantly affected.”
Under such horrific circumstances, children often lose their sense of normalcy. In their confusion, some desperately cling to their previous lives.
This was the case of 6-year-old Zain.
“One day, upon waking up, he instinctively put on his school uniform, saying, ‘I want to go to school,’ before breaking down in tears,” his father said.
Zain’s family lived in an apartment in north-west Gaza before becoming refugees in the Khan Younes camp.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translation by Sahar Ghoussoub.
Source: Lorient Today
