ON WORLD Children’s Day yesterday it was recorded that at least 5,500 children have been killed by the Zionist Israeli regime since it began its genocidal onslaught on Gaza on 7th October.
Celebrated annually on November 20, World Children’s Day is a global initiative promoting children’s rights, safety, education, health and happiness.
Since October 7th, Israeli attacks have killed at least 5,500 children, according to Palestinian officials. That is one Palestinian child killed every 10 minutes, or about one out of every 200 children in the Gaza Strip.
An additional 1,800 children are still missing under the rubble, most of them presumed dead.
A further 9,000 children have been injured, many with life-changing consequences. Many of these children have lived through the trauma of multiple wars.
Farha Abu al-Hija, head of the ‘Lest We Forget’ Association in Jenin camp, which is an association specialising in children’s and women’s affairs in the West Bank, said yesterday that the difficult conditions have affected the camp’s children on a psychological, social, and educational level.
‘The children of Jenin camp are subject to Israeli raids on their homes and schools. Even children in kindergartens and nurseries are also exposed to Israeli incursions, which creates fear, tension, terror, lack of security, lack of sleep, and violence,’ said Abu al-Hija, who is also a member of the Popular Committee for Jenin Camp Services.
Jenin refugee camp has been subject to almost daily Israeli military raids, and the war on Gaza has only exacerbated the heavy toll on children’s well-being.
‘They watch other children being bombed and killed in media outlets, and this has created adverse psychological issues: the inability to sleep, constant fear, and the child’s insistence on staying close to the parents,’ Abu al-Hija said.
Children make up 47 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population
UNICEF has called the Gaza Strip ‘a graveyard for thousands of children’, describing the situation in Gaza as ‘a growing stain on our collective conscience’ and calling the rate of child casualties ‘simply staggering’.
Save the Children said that more children have been killed in Gaza than in all other conflicts around the world since 2019, combined.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said yesterday it is ‘clear’ that thousands of children have been killed in just a few weeks.
‘This is what matters,’ he said at a press briefing held at the UN. ‘We are witnessing a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict since I am Secretary General.’