“Thousands of children have died in a matter of weeks and, with the ongoing fighting, reportedly hundreds more children are being killed and injured every day. Our colleagues on the ground have met children who have lost limbs, their homes, or their families – sometimes all three,” Media and Communication Specialist at the United Nations Children’s Fund, Tess Ingram, told our correspondent via mail in response to questions concerning the fate of children amid Israel-Hamas war.
“ … and the lack of lifesaving aid available to these children decreases their chances of surviving this horrific situation,” Ingram said from the New York headquarters of UNICEF.
The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured daily. Entire neighbourhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle-East and North-Africa, Adele Khodr, said earlier in December in a statement published on the agency’s website.
The international community has continually been left in dismay as innocent children become collateral damage in the raging war between Israel and Hamas militants which began October 7, 2023, when the militants attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages of which 105 have been released and several others killed, according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel has continued to pound Gaza leaving the crowded strip in ruins, killing more than 18,400 people, mostly women, and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and causing “unparalleled” damage to its roads, schools and hospitals, an AFP report gathered.
‘Graveyard for children’
More than 3,600 Palestinian children were reported to have been killed in the first 25 days of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. Details of this figure cannot be independently verified, but Associated Press in November gathered that they were hit by airstrikes, smashed by misfired rockets, burnt by blasts, and crushed by buildings, and among them were newborns and toddlers, avid readers, aspiring journalists and boys who thought they would be safe in a church.
Nearly half of the crowded strip’s 2.3 million inhabitants are under 18, and children account for 40% of those killed so far in the war. An Associated Press analysis of the Gaza Health Ministry data released late October revealed that 2,001 children ages 12 and under had been killed, including 615 who were three or younger.
“When houses are destroyed, they collapse on the heads of children,” writer Adam al-Madhoun told AP as he comforted his four-year-old daughter, Kenzi, at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. She survived an airstrike that ripped off her right arm, crushed her left leg, and fractured her skull.
Images and footage of shell-shocked children being pulled from rubble in Gaza or writhing on dirty hospital gurneys have become commonplace and have fueled protests around the world. According to the AP, scenes from recent airstrikes included a rescuer cradling a limp toddler in a bloodied white tutu, a bespectacled father shrieking as he clutched his dead child tight to his chest, and a dazed young boy covered in blood and dust staggering alone through the ruins.
“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children,” a spokesperson for UNICEF, James Elder, was quoted as saying.
In the days since Hamas’ surprise assault on Israel, images from both regions have also shown crying children running through the street and cowering in bomb shelters after airstrikes. According to the ABC News, in Gaza, the bodies of dead children killed in shelling were covered in blankets and carried by their fathers in funeral processions. In the kibbutz of Be’eri, one of the largest in Israel, more than 100 bodies of Israeli citizens were discovered after the October 7 attack, with women, children and the elderly “brutally (killed),” the Israel Defence Force said. Israeli children have also been among those reported kidnapped by the Hamas group.
“Nothing justifies the killing, maiming or abducting of children – grave rights violations which UNICEF wholeheartedly condemns. Yet, less than 72 hours after the outbreak of the horrific violence in Israel, reports indicate that grave rights violations against children are rampant,” UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell said in a statement hours after the violence broke out. “Many children have been killed or injured, while countless others have been exposed to the violence,” ABC News quoted the director as saying.
One million children displaced
“Close to one million children have been forcibly displaced from their homes. They are now being pushed further and further South into tiny, overcrowded areas without water, food, or protection, putting them at increased risk of respiratory infections and waterborne diseases. Their lives are further threatened by dehydration, malnutrition, and disease,” UNICEF’s Khodr added in the statement on the continued killing and injuring of children in Gaza following the war published on the agency’s website.
Children recount ordeals
“I used to love playing football a lot, and I wanted to be a football player when I grow up, but now I cannot,” Three-year-old Ahmad who was sleeping in his home in Gaza when it was destroyed by a bombardment told UNICEF.
In a picture of Ahmad posted on X by @UNICEF on December 13, the three-year-old’s limb was bandaged. “He suffered a direct injury to his leg and was transported to the Al-Aqsa Hospital. From there, he was transferred to Nasser Hospital to manage complications. Unfortunately, his leg was amputated due to limited medical resources,” the post said.
Ahmed Shabat was described as a wounded child, with no surviving family, when he arrived injured and crying at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, according to a BBC report in November.
Ahmed’s uncle Ibrahim Abu told the BBC the three-year-old’s legs were gone after a bombing. “Ahmed was hit by glass fragments” from an explosion, he said, adding “I ran out of the school’s door and saw Ahmed in front of me on the ground, both legs gone. He was crawling towards me, opening his arms, seeking help.”
Two-year-old Muna Alwan’s eyes were badly injured and became an orphan after. She constantly cried “Mama,” but her mum was dead, BBC gathered.
Muna was pulled from under the rubble after an air strike hit a neighbour’s house in the Jabal al-Rais area of northern Gaza. Muna’s parents, brother and grandfather were killed. Muna’s eye was badly injured and her jaw fractured.
“When I saw my dad, I was scared because he was covered in blood and stones. People were standing around us, and my sister was screaming,” 11-year-old Dunya Abu also recounted to BBC on a metal bed in the corner of a room at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. “I looked at myself and I didn’t have a leg. I felt pain and my only thought was: ‘How did I lose my leg?’”
“Our room was destroyed. All of our toys and clothes were inside,” said 12-year-old Abeer as she held her four-year-old sister, Zahra, according to a tweet by @UNICEF on X on December 13. They’re standing outside their home which was destroyed in Rafah, southern Gaza, the tweet added, saying, “Children need a humanitarian ceasefire now.”
Eight-year-old Jinan Mughari’s skull and leg were broken in the bombing, her mother Hiba Mughari explained. “They bombed the house in front of us and then our home,” she told CNN team that visited the hospital in Rafa. “I was sitting next to my grandfather, and my grandfather held me, and my uncle was fine, so he was the one who took us out.” Jinan was immobilised in a full-body cast.
“I do not want anyone to ask me about my childhood anymore, I have no childhood, I only live in terror,” Ghazal, 14, from southern Gaza, whose home was destroyed in a bombardment, was also quoted.
“When I head to school, I am worried about my brother. He is scared by the violence and shootings,” 11-year-old Hussam also said.
Some children who also spoke to ABC News lamented missing their parents who were either killed or missing following the war.
From reportedly witnessing their parents slain and having loved ones kidnapped to living in constant fear of being hit by a missile, some of the children in the war zone said they had witnessed a living nightmare.
Despite the crisis they found themselves in by no fault of their own, 11-year-old Israeli girl, Alona Rousso, and nine-year-old Palestinian boy, Riad al-Sharbasi, both said they still hoped peace would replace war.
“I personally think that there is going to be peace someday,” Alona, a resident of the Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel, told ABC News. Her kibbutz is one of multiple kibbutzim and towns the Hamas attacked on October 7.
“My dad was a good man,” she said. “I remember when we lived in our old house and he would help me build a pillow fort and then we would play hide-and-seek and he won because he knew all my hiding spots. I really miss those moments and wish I could play with him one last time before he left without saying goodbye. I’m still a little mad about him for leaving without saying anything.”
Riad, one of more than a million Palestinians displaced by the war, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said he and his family were sheltering in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. He told ABC News he missed his home and his toys, especially his favourite toy duck.
“I’m afraid of the rockets. I’m afraid of people getting injured and dying, and I’m afraid of planes bombing our homes,” he said.
When asked if he believed the war would end someday, he didn’t hesitate to say, “Yes.” Like Rousso, he said his wish was to “make people live and sleep in peace.”
30 children held hostage
“Since October 7, 35 Israeli children have reportedly been killed. More than 30 children held hostage in Gaza have been safely released and reunited with their families,” UNICEF Media Section disclosed further in the statement sent to The PUNCH on December 13.
“Children need a lasting humanitarian ceasefire. We call on all parties to ensure that children are protected and assisted, in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law. All children in the State of Palestine and Israel need a lasting solution to the crisis so that they can grow up in peace and with hope for a brighter future,” the statement added.
The AFP reported that a four-year-old American girl in November arrived safely in Israel after being released from captivity in Gaza.
The United States President, Joe Biden, who confirmed her release, said the girl had been through trauma
“She’s been through a terrible trauma,” Biden said of the child, Abigail, whose parents were killed by Hamas militants when members of the Islamist group attacked Israel on October 7.
“Today, she’s free, and Jill (Biden) and I, together with so many Americans, are praying for the fact that she is going to be alright,” he said.
‘Children’s vaccine exhausted’
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on December 13 it had exhausted its supply of children’s vaccines and warned of “catastrophic health repercussions”.
According to AFP, the announcement came more than two months into the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza as international aid organisations had warned about the dire conditions in the crowded Palestinian territory.
The ministry did not specify which vaccinations had run out, and its claim could not be independently verified.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Lynn Hastings, said UNICEF was looking into the issue.
“Vaccinations are one of the priority items that we are trying to bring in to ensure that we are able to continue with the vaccine campaign,” Hastings told journalists at an online briefing.
Babies battle infections
Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, became a flashpoint in Israel’s war against Hamas, a CNN report disclosed.
Palestinians and humanitarian agencies said in late November that fighting in and around Al-Shifa was proof of Israel’s wanton disregard for civilian life in Gaza, while Israel accuses Hamas of using the medical centre as a shield for its operations.
On top of providing medical care, the Al-Shifa Hospital was said to have become a key shelter for thousands of Palestinian civilians fleeing Israeli bombardment.
The CNN reported that since launching its operation at the hospital on November 15, the Israel Defence Forces had shown images of a tunnel shaft and military equipment, but had yet to show conclusive proof of the large-scale command and control centre it alleged was there.
The field hospital has a 41-bed capacity, the Jordanian royal palace said, and the head of medical aid in Gaza, Aed Yaghi, said it was accompanied by 170 personnel and 40 trucks of medical aid.
Amid this, the World Health Organisation said 28 premature babies evacuated from Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, in November were taken to safety in Egypt through the Rafah crossing, revising down by one a number given by the Egyptian media.
“All babies are fighting serious infections and continue needing health care,” the WHO said, while the Israeli army said it had “helped facilitate” the transfer.
The infants were transferred south on Sunday from Al-Shifa hospital, which the WHO called a “death zone” as Israel sought to uncover what it said was a Hamas base under the facility.
Hamas and medical staff however denied that a command centre was under the hospital, according to the CNN.
Chronic diarrhoea, hepatitis
According to UNICEF, water scarcity and unsafe sanitation “elevate the risk of disease, especially chronic diarrhoea among children.”
The agency disclosed to our correspondent that the challenges confronting the vulnerable in the war regions include drinking water from brackish agricultural wells, which it said also “exposes communities to harmful chemicals and high saline content, particularly threatening to the health of vulnerable groups like newborns, children, and women.”
“Medical teams have already noted a rise in cases of acute respiratory disorders, diarrhoea, and hepatitis A, including among children under five years of age. Adding to these concerns is the discharge of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea, creating both environmental and public health hazards.”
“We project that over the next few months, child wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition in children, could increase by nearly 30 per cent in Gaza,” UNICEF noted.
WHO warns
The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Ghebreyesus, also warned on December 10 that “Gaza’s health system was on its knees and collapsing,” with 14 of 36 hospitals only partially functioning and supplies running low.
“The risk is expected to worsen with the deteriorating situation and approaching winter conditions,” he said.
The Gaza health ministry called on international institutions to deliver urgently needed vaccines “to prevent disaster”.
Israeli envoy reacts
The PUNCH reached out to the Ambassador of Israel in Nigeria, Michael Freeman, to ascertain the details of children and women casualties in his country following the attack on its territory on October 7.
Freeman reiterated that Hamas’ attack on Israeli territory killed over 1,200 men, women, and children. He also claimed that children were tortured in front of their parents.
“On October 7, Hamas terrorists broke through the border from Gaza, and entered Israeli towns and villages. There, they (killed) over 1,200 innocent men, women and children. They tortured children in front of their parents, tortured parents in front of their children and brutalised, raped, and abused anyone that they could find, before systematically murdering them.
“Whole families were burnt alive, 340 young people were sadistically (killed) at a music festival. Hamas also kidnapped 240 others in Gaza, including young babies, children, and the elderly,” part of Freeman’s statement in response to questions from our correspondent revealed.
Freeman disclosed that Israel was making efforts to protect women and children. “Israel is going to extraordinary lengths to protect innocent civilians in Gaza. We have set up a safe zone in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, have created and protected humanitarian corridors for civilians to travel to these safe zones, and have distributed millions of leaflets that have been dropped – advising civilians where the safe zones and humanitarian corridors are. Further, we have made tens of thousands of individual phone calls to warn civilians of pending air strikes and battles,” Freeman told our correspondent.
Children most affected – Palestine
The Embassy of Palestine in Nigeria disclosed to The PUNCH that children and women were most affected with many already subjected to diseases.
The Palestinian Ambassador in Nigeria, Abu Shawesh, in response to questions from our correspondent disclosed that the percentage of women among the Palestinian people is nearly 50 per cent of the total population, while the percentage of children (boys and girls) is around 47 per cent.
Shawesh noted, “After the recent Israeli military aggression, these two very weak categories (women and children) were subjected to be the most affected part. Around 70 per cent of the victims, including both deaths and injuries, were children and women.”
According to the envoy, “This is not the end of the tragedy. Both of them have special needs and require extra hygienic care. Unfortunately, due to the lack of water; and other women’s special needs, they are subject to many diseases, particularly the dermal diseases.”
Speaking on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Shawesh quoted the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joseph Borrel, who recently disclosed that the situation in the Palestinian territory was “catastrophic, apocalyptic,” with destruction proportionally “even greater” than that which Germany experienced in World War II.
The Palestinian envoy, referring to the EU official’s statement, said, “This is very important to imagine the tremendous needs that Gaza is lacking. The complete siege that Israel has inflicted on Gaza, including the cutting off of the fuel, water, electricity, and many other necessary products (that) have led to a shortage of essential daily needs for Gaza. This makes the photo very dark and the humanitarian need is skyrocketing.”
Speaking of aid, the official said, “Humanitarian aid requires a logistical chain to ensure efficient, timely, and equitable distribution and allocation. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Gaza. Mass destruction, communication breakdowns, physical barriers, and limited vehicle movement due to fuel shortages, as well as the killing of hundreds of expert human relief workers, have disrupted organised distribution channels. These factors, along with others not listed here, make it nearly impossible for humanitarian aid to reach the people, especially in certain geographic locations.”
“It has been said that the humanitarian crisis and catastrophic situation in Gaza cannot be handled by the Palestinian Authority alone. Gaza is the crisis of humanity, as the UN Secretary-General called it before, (and) should be handled and tackled by the international community at large,” he added.
Rights groups react
The President, International Human Rights and Dignity Defenders Forum, David Vine, in an interview with our correspondent, condemned the war between Israel and Hamas, lamenting how children and women are bearing the brunt.
Vine said, “(The war) is never a good one. It’s never a palatable one. It’s usually very difficult for (the damage) to be avoided especially in this case where many innocent women and children have fallen victims. It’s certainly condemnable. It has affected both sides because when they went after Israel during their festive period, they were not expecting the hit. In it all, we’re not happy about it, we condemn it in totality. We wish the bigger international community should wade in to see how they can settle the war. The hostages that they’re expected to release, who knows even if they’re all still alive. Israel is not ready to renege on this hit until they have all their hostages released.
“From a personal perspective, both sides are affected negatively. But in all of this, we want peace to reign. Israel should just cease fire, they have to cease fire. We want peace.
“(International bodies) have a lot of roles to play if they want peace to reign.”
Amnesty International’s Nigeria Director, Isa Sanusi, disclosed to The PUNCH that the organisation “had done a lot on the situation in Gaza.” He disclosed this while responding to questions from our correspondent on the position of the organisation in the ongoing war as it relates to civilian casualties.
Sharing the organisation’s statement in reaction to the US veto of a UN Security Council draft resolution that called for a ceasefire in the war, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard knocked the US for displaying “disregard for civilian suffering.”
“By vetoing this resolution, the US has displayed a callous disregard for civilian suffering in the face of a staggering death toll, extensive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe happening in the occupied Gaza Strip,” Callamard was quoted as saying.
“There can be no justification for continuing to block meaningful action by the UN Security Council to stop massive civilian bloodshed,” the Secretary General added.
However, on December 13, 2023, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
