IOF turned Gaza into children's biggest graveyard: Euro-Med Monitor

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor
9 Dec 2023 20:12
4 Shares

As hundreds of children remain under the rubble with their chances of rescue diminishing after weeks of unsuccessful rescue attempts, the total number of child casualties will likely exceed 10,000.

A Palestinian child walks in the wreckage of a house destroyed by Israeli bombardment behind him a mural of an Israeli missile targeting a young girl, Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on June 8, 2023 (AP)

A recent report by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor shows that "Israel" has killed more than ten thousand children and infants since the onset of aggression against the Gaza Strip on the seventh of October.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that the total death toll in the Israeli airstrikes and intensive artillery attacks has exceeded 23,012, including 9,077 children and infants, according to preliminary statistics.

As hundreds of children remain under the rubble with their chances of rescue diminishing after weeks of unsuccessful rescue attempts, the total number of child casualties will likely exceed 10,000, the Monitor added.

The Monitor estimated that the total number of children impacted by the genocidal war perpetrated by "Israel" against Gaza reached approximately 700,000, which includes those killed, injured, and displaced without shelter.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that the United Nations agencies, including the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), refuse to disclose the real figures of the victims instead of coming to terms with their inaptitude to meet their duties of saving the victims and preventing the deaths of countless children in Gaza.

The Monitor also revealed that more than 18,000 people suffered various injuries in "Israeli" attacks, with hundreds being in critical condition, dozens suffering from amputations, and hundreds sustaining severe burns in various parts of their bodies.

Additionally, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimated that 24,000 to 25,000 Palestinian children have been orphaned (losing one or both of their parents to Israeli aggression) and about 640,000 of them had their homes destroyed or damaged, leaving them homeless.

Hundreds of thousands of children, the Monitor added, are at risk of education deprivation in light of the aggression, which has rendered most schools inoperational and left hundreds (217) destroyed or damaged.

The human rights organization emphasized that the children in Gaza find themselves subject to indiscriminate attacks for the third consecutive month. Many of them remain homeless and lack safe food and drinking water or have been forced to evacuate under fire, increasing the severity of the shocks they endure.

It added that 1,840,000 people in Gaza have become internally displaced, living with their children in overcrowded and unsuitable shelters, causing serious repercussions on the children and their safety.

Furthermore, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor highlighted that children in Gaza also face the risk of dying from hunger and thirst, especially in the areas around Gaza City and northern Gaza, where access to a single meal a day is troublesome. Many there are forced to use unsafe and unhealthy methods to ignite fires for cooking.

In addition, children face the risk of exposure to infectious diseases due to the aggression, blockade, the lack of clean drinking water, and the suspension of sewage pumps, as well as the lack of personal hygiene and healthcare in overcrowded shelters, the report noted.

The Human Rights Monitor also reported that the aggression will have long-lasting effects on children in Gaza under the age of 18 who constitute 47% of the 2.3 million population.

Four out of five children were suffering from depression and anxiety even prior to the current aggression, a sharp uptick compared to previous studies.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reiterated its call to the international community to urgently and immediately bring an end to the aggression against Gaza, which has turned it into a gruesome children's graveyard unprecedented in modern history.

The Human Rights Monitor called on the international community to provide the children of Gaza with the needed protection, bringing an end to the international community's double standards, which have long dictated its stances.

It emphasized that "Israel" must be held accountable for its blatant violations of international humanitarian law in killing and targeting Palestinian children and preventing them from exercising their rights by depriving them of their needs for medical assistance, including vaccines, food, shelter, and needed clothing as recognized in the Geneva Conventions and their protocols of 1977.