3 weeks in Gaza saw more child deaths than 3 years worldwide with 5 children killed every hour in Israeli conflict
Gokhan Celikler and Sumeyye Dilara Dincer |04.11.2023
ANKARA
The conflict between Israel and Palestine that has been ongoing since Oct. 7 continues with five children being killed every hour in the Gaza Strip.
Half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million consists of children, and the number of youths who were killed in the first three weeks has exceeded the global average of children killed in the past three years.
More than 40% of the 7,028 Palestinians killed in the conflict since Oct. 7 have been children, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) data.
Data from the UK-based Save The Children, based on health officials controlled by Hamas, more than 3,000 children were killed in Palestine in three weeks.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said Israel killed 9,061 Palestinians in attacks, including 3,760 children, 2,326 women and at least 32,000 people were injured.
Save The Children said the number of children killed in Palestine in the last three weeks exceeded the number of children killed in conflicts worldwide from 2020 - 2022.
In reports by the UN Secretary-General on Armed Conflicts and Children, it was stated that 2,985 children died in 24 countries in conflicts in 2022; 2,515 were killed in 2021 and 2,674 in 2020.
The report for 2019 did not provide information about the number of countries but said 4,019 children were killed in conflicts worldwide.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health published a 212-page report on the deaths in Gaza due to Israel's attacks between Oct. 7 and Oct.26 and found 2,913 of the 7,028 killed were children.
In Israel's attacks, 133 babies under the age of 1, and 444 babies younger than 3 were killed.
In bombings, 171 children at the age of three, 1,527 elementary school age (4 - 13), and 523 high school age (14 - 17) were killed
Large portion of the wounded are children
The WHO announced a significant portion of the 18,482 people injured in Palestine since Oct. 7 are children.
According to a report based on Israeli officials by CNN, more than 1,400 Israelis were killed since Oct. 7, with 30 being children.
According to UNICEF, Gaza is turning into a graveyard for children
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder expressed concern about child deaths in Gaza under Israel's heavy attacks.
He emphasized that children have been adversely affected by the conflict.
"We are concerned about the increasing child deaths in Gaza. Gaza is turning into a graveyard for children," he said.
Elder reiterated UNICEF's demand for an urgent cease-fire and the uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
"Children in Gaza are not only dying because of the bombings, but they are also dying due to the lack of the medical care they need," he added.
Child deaths in Ukraine
On the other hand, since the first day of the Russia-Ukraine War, heavy clashes have taken place in the Kharkiv region, where settlements have been completely destroyed and thousands of children have not been able to return to their homes.
According to the data of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Ukraine has more than 6 million citizens under 18. More than 1 million are registered as "under the age of 5."
According to the data released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 9,614 out of the 7,028 people killed in the war that broke out Feb. 24, 2022, were children until Sept. 10, 2023. It was stated that 1,180 of the 17,535 injured were children.
According to Save the Children data from July, an average of three children are killed or injured every day in the war.
The June data from Ukraine revealed that 19,501 children were forcibly taken to Russia during the war.
Israeli army strikes entrance of Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in Gaza
Civilian casualties reported in attack, according to Palestinian local media
Anadolu staff |04.11.2023 -
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The Israeli army on Saturday targeted the entrance of Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in the western Gaza City, according to Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV.
Several Palestinian local media outlets reported that civilian casualties were caused due to the attack.
The Israeli army has recently targeted Palestinian hospitals in the Gaza Strip including the Al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, and Indonesian Hospital.
The Israeli army has widened its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has been under relentless airstrikes since the surprise offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.
More than 10,700 people have been killed in the conflict, including at least 9,227 Palestinians, mostly children and women, and nearly 1,540 Israelis.
Civilian casualties reported in attack, according to Palestinian local media
Anadolu staff |04.11.2023 -
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The Israeli army on Saturday targeted the entrance of Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in the western Gaza City, according to Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV.
Several Palestinian local media outlets reported that civilian casualties were caused due to the attack.
The Israeli army has recently targeted Palestinian hospitals in the Gaza Strip including the Al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Quds Hospital, and Indonesian Hospital.
The Israeli army has widened its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has been under relentless airstrikes since the surprise offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.
More than 10,700 people have been killed in the conflict, including at least 9,227 Palestinians, mostly children and women, and nearly 1,540 Israelis.
‘I want my legs back’: the child amputees of Gaza’s war
By AFP
November 4, 2023
A young boy in a wheelchair moves around the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza. — © AFP
Mai Yaghi
Layan al-Baz cries in agony when the effect fades of the painkillers she receives after her legs were amputated — the result of a strike on Gaza as Israel fights Hamas.
“I don’t want a false leg,” the 13-year-old Palestinian tells AFP in Khan Yunis’s Nasser hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip, where getting artificial limbs was nearly impossible anyway.
The impoverished Palestinian territory, under a crippling Israeli-led blockade for years and besieged since war erupted on October 7, suffers severe shortages of food, water and fuel, and medical supplies are scarce.
“I want them to put my legs back, they can do it,” Baz says in desperation from her bed at Nasser’s paediatric ward.
Thirteen-year-old amputee Layan al-Baz receives treatment at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis – Copyright AFP DAVID GRAY
Every time she opens her eyes as the painkillers wear off, she sees her bandaged stumps.
Her mother, Lamia al-Baz, 47, says Layan was wounded last week in a strike on Al-Qarara district of Khan Yunis, part of Israel’s unrelenting military campaign in response to bloody Hamas attacks on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, nearly 9,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted, including at least 3,900 children.
Four of them were Baz’s relatives, killed in the strike that cost the 13-year-old’s legs, her mother says.
Lamia says two of her daughters, Ikhlas and Khitam, and two grandchildren including a newborn baby were killed when the Israeli strike hit Ikhlas’s home. The family were there to support Ikhlas who had just given birth.
“Their bodies were in shreds,” says Lamia, who had to identify her daughters’ bodies at a morgue. “I identified Khitam by her earrings and Ikhlas by her toes.”
Layan, her face and arms dotted with injuries, asks: “How will I return to school when my friends walk and I can’t?”
Lamia tries to reassure her: “I will be by your side. It will all be fine. You still have a future ahead of you.”
– ‘I’m still alive’ –
At the hospital’s burns unit, 14-year-old Lama al-Agha and her sister Sara, 15, lie in adjacent beds.
They are treated after an October 12 strike that killed Sara’s twin Sama and brother Yahya, 12, says their mother, sitting between the two hospital beds and struggling to hold back tears.
Stitches and burn scars are visible on Lama’s half-shaved head and her forehead.
“When they transferred me here, I asked the nurses to help me sit up and I discovered that my leg was amputated,” the 14-year-old recalls.
“I’ve been through a lot of pain but I thank God that I’m still alive.”
Lama is determined not to let her injury decide her future.
“I’ll get an artificial leg and continue my studies, so I can achieve my dream of becoming a doctor. I will be strong for me and for my family,” she says.
Hospital director Nahed Abu Taaema explains that due to the massive number of casualties and dwindling resources, medics are often left with no choice but to amputate limbs to prevent life-threatening complications.
“We have to choose between saving a patient’s life or putting it at risk while trying to save their injured leg,” says Abu Taaema.
– Dashed football dream –
Sporting a green football jersey and matching shorts, Ahmad Abu Shahmah, 14, uses crutches to walk around the ruins of his family’s home in Khan Yunis.
Now surrounded by several of his cousins, Abu Shahmah is at the courtyard where he used to play football.
But the building was destroyed in a strike that killed six of his cousins and an aunt.
“When I woke up (after surgery) I asked my brother, ‘where is my leg?'” he recalls.
“He lied to me and said it was right there, and that I couldn’t feel it because of the anaesthetics.”
The following day, “my cousin told me the truth”, says Abu Shahmah.
“I cried a lot. The first thing I thought about was that I will no longer be able to walk or play football like I would every day. I signed up to an academy one week before the war.”
Abu Shahmah supports FC Barcelona, while his cousins are die-hard fans of Real Madrid.
One of them, Farid Abu Shahmah, says that if he “could turn back time and return Ahmad his leg, I’d be ready to give up Real and become a Barcelona fan like him.”
By AFP
November 4, 2023
A young boy in a wheelchair moves around the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza. — © AFP
Mai Yaghi
Layan al-Baz cries in agony when the effect fades of the painkillers she receives after her legs were amputated — the result of a strike on Gaza as Israel fights Hamas.
“I don’t want a false leg,” the 13-year-old Palestinian tells AFP in Khan Yunis’s Nasser hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip, where getting artificial limbs was nearly impossible anyway.
The impoverished Palestinian territory, under a crippling Israeli-led blockade for years and besieged since war erupted on October 7, suffers severe shortages of food, water and fuel, and medical supplies are scarce.
“I want them to put my legs back, they can do it,” Baz says in desperation from her bed at Nasser’s paediatric ward.
Thirteen-year-old amputee Layan al-Baz receives treatment at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis – Copyright AFP DAVID GRAY
Every time she opens her eyes as the painkillers wear off, she sees her bandaged stumps.
Her mother, Lamia al-Baz, 47, says Layan was wounded last week in a strike on Al-Qarara district of Khan Yunis, part of Israel’s unrelenting military campaign in response to bloody Hamas attacks on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, nearly 9,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted, including at least 3,900 children.
Four of them were Baz’s relatives, killed in the strike that cost the 13-year-old’s legs, her mother says.
Lamia says two of her daughters, Ikhlas and Khitam, and two grandchildren including a newborn baby were killed when the Israeli strike hit Ikhlas’s home. The family were there to support Ikhlas who had just given birth.
“Their bodies were in shreds,” says Lamia, who had to identify her daughters’ bodies at a morgue. “I identified Khitam by her earrings and Ikhlas by her toes.”
Layan, her face and arms dotted with injuries, asks: “How will I return to school when my friends walk and I can’t?”
Lamia tries to reassure her: “I will be by your side. It will all be fine. You still have a future ahead of you.”
– ‘I’m still alive’ –
At the hospital’s burns unit, 14-year-old Lama al-Agha and her sister Sara, 15, lie in adjacent beds.
They are treated after an October 12 strike that killed Sara’s twin Sama and brother Yahya, 12, says their mother, sitting between the two hospital beds and struggling to hold back tears.
Stitches and burn scars are visible on Lama’s half-shaved head and her forehead.
“When they transferred me here, I asked the nurses to help me sit up and I discovered that my leg was amputated,” the 14-year-old recalls.
“I’ve been through a lot of pain but I thank God that I’m still alive.”
Lama is determined not to let her injury decide her future.
“I’ll get an artificial leg and continue my studies, so I can achieve my dream of becoming a doctor. I will be strong for me and for my family,” she says.
Hospital director Nahed Abu Taaema explains that due to the massive number of casualties and dwindling resources, medics are often left with no choice but to amputate limbs to prevent life-threatening complications.
“We have to choose between saving a patient’s life or putting it at risk while trying to save their injured leg,” says Abu Taaema.
– Dashed football dream –
Sporting a green football jersey and matching shorts, Ahmad Abu Shahmah, 14, uses crutches to walk around the ruins of his family’s home in Khan Yunis.
Now surrounded by several of his cousins, Abu Shahmah is at the courtyard where he used to play football.
But the building was destroyed in a strike that killed six of his cousins and an aunt.
“When I woke up (after surgery) I asked my brother, ‘where is my leg?'” he recalls.
“He lied to me and said it was right there, and that I couldn’t feel it because of the anaesthetics.”
The following day, “my cousin told me the truth”, says Abu Shahmah.
“I cried a lot. The first thing I thought about was that I will no longer be able to walk or play football like I would every day. I signed up to an academy one week before the war.”
Abu Shahmah supports FC Barcelona, while his cousins are die-hard fans of Real Madrid.
One of them, Farid Abu Shahmah, says that if he “could turn back time and return Ahmad his leg, I’d be ready to give up Real and become a Barcelona fan like him.”
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