The killing of children is a cornerstone of the Israeli war against Gaza

The killing of children is a cornerstone of the Israeli war against Gaza

Children have always been victims of war. However, in conventional wars they are rarely targeted. But there is no conventional war in Gaza. It is primarily a war against civilians – non-combatants. Over the past ten months, under the guise of Israeli self-defense, civilians in Gaza have been bombed in their homes, hospitals, UN schools, makeshift shelters and while fleeing for their lives despite repeated calls to evacuate. More than 80 percent of Gaza's 2.2 million residents are now displaced, and less than 10 percent of the entire enclave is considered safe.
Under the laws of war, civilians, especially women and children, must be spared and protected. Gaza represents a cruel and shameful exception.
As the official war death toll passed the alarming 40,000 Palestinian deaths last week, it is important to remember that at least half of the dead are women and children. 40 percent of the total 16,000 dead are children. Of these, 2,100 were under the age of two. At least 17,000 Palestinians are now orphans or have no living relatives to take care of them. No fewer than 12,000 children are wounded, and an unknown number have lost at least one limb.
Thousands of children in Gaza need psychological help as they suffer from trauma and shock, many of which will never recover. More than 47 percent of Gaza's population are children. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the estimated number of children under the age of 18 in Gaza is 544,776 boys and 523,210 girls, with about 15 percent of them (341,790) under the age of five.
Analysts and experts have written much about Israel's war on Gaza. Politicians, UN reporters, aid workers and international lawyers have revealed much about the ongoing carnage. The war has been analyzed from political, geopolitical, security and humanitarian perspectives. Yet while the world focuses on political efforts to achieve an elusive ceasefire and deliver humanitarian aid in a sustainable and non-political manner, one aspect of the war has received little attention: Israel's deliberate killing of children.
No war in the last 60 years has caused such horrific rates of child mortality and injury. The US war in Vietnam claimed 882,000 Vietnamese lives, including 84,000 children, less than 10 percent of the total. The Bosnian conflict of 1992-1995 claimed 200,000 lives, including 12,000 children, or 6 percent of the total.
During the nearly 20-year American occupation of Afghanistan, at least 100,000 Afghans were killed, including around 28,000 children (28 percent of the total), a staggering figure given the US's claim that it relied on targeted measures in its attacks.
As a result of the US war in Iraq, at least 250,000 Iraqis lost their lives, including 9,000 children (3.6 percent).
During the three-month-long genocide in Rwanda in 1994, some 800,000 people were killed, including 300,000 children, a staggering 40 percent of the total. This horrific figure represents a grim record that only Israel has matched to date.
It is an understatement to say that Israel deliberately targets civilians in its war on Gaza. The images, the testimonies and the gruesome facts bear witness to this. And yet, after more than 300 days of incessant bombing, Israel has not changed its policy despite statements from the UN and other independent observers. The deliberate killing of children is a cornerstone of Israel's war on Gaza.
However, it is important to note that the facts and figures do not reflect the reality of the massacre that Israel is committing against Palestinian children. We have not heard a single Israeli official admit that these thousands of children are innocent victims of this conflict. There has been no “mea culpa”, no apologies and no regrets.
These children have names and come from families with dreams and ambitions. One such victim was Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli soldiers in January. The troops fired more than 300 bullets into an ambulance, killing Hind and six of her family members, as well as two paramedics as they tried to save them. Under pressure, the US demanded an investigation. Israel never complied. Hind's tragic murder has become a symbol of Israel's murder of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza.
Recently, there was the heartbreaking story of newborn twins killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza while their father was registering their births at a local government office. Asser, a boy, and Ayssel, a girl, were just four days old when they were killed as their father, Mohammed Abu Al-Qumsan, went to collect their birth certificates. Israel is unlikely to be held accountable for their murder.

No war in the last 60 years has resulted in such appalling child mortality and injury rates.

Osama Al-Sharif

While the International Criminal Court considers issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes, the carnage in Gaza continues. Babies are being killed and mothers are losing their infants. This has become an everyday reality in Gaza.
If these two attacks are not considered war crimes, what will? Hundreds of similar cases go unnoticed every day. Regardless of the outcome of the ongoing ceasefire talks, Israel must be held accountable for the deliberate killing of Palestinian children. Once the dust settles and independent investigators are allowed into the beleaguered enclave, the total number of civilian deaths will rise dramatically, and with it the percentage of child victims.
Israel's genocidal war in Gaza would not have lasted as long as it did if the US and the West had not fully supported Israel. Under international law, these countries are complicit in the ongoing massacre. Will we ever see such crimes against humanity punished? That is unlikely. The current world order is designed so that the guilty party – in this case Israel – is exonerated or gets off with a mild rebuke. That says everything there is to know about such an order. And it also says a lot about an order whose time has passed.

• Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. X: @plato010

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this section are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab News.