Killing children

THE most horrific element of the ongoing genocide in Gaza — pushed off the front pages by the US-Iran conflict — is the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children by Israeli security forces. More than 60,000 Palestinian children have reportedly been killed or injured by Zionist forces in the enclave over the past 32 months, and the genocide continues despite the ceasefire. According to Unicef, one Palestinian child has been killed on average every day since the truce began last October. Arguably, there is no comparable case of genocide against children in recorded history. A report released last week by the three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel — established by the UN Human Rights Council — provides harrowing new details. It documents serious physical and psychological harm inflicted on Palestinian children by Israeli security forces since Oct 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of at least 20,179 children and injuries to 44,143. The Commission examined how the living conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza are “resulting in preventable mortality of children”. Severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacement, starvation and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood in Gaza, is one of the report’s findings. This situation will continue to shape the territory’s children for the rest of their lives. “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future,” said Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the inquiry. Israel, the report adds, is “eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, [and] weakening the demographic vitality…”. It has caused a “severe orphan crisis”, and wounded youngsters “face a lifetime of disability” — now “a defining demographic reality” among Gaza’s children. The siege “directly unde