The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said that the Israeli occupation forces are killing an average of 100 children every day, since the launch of its large-scale military attack against the Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2023. The Observatory documented the killing of 1,046 Palestinian children as of the night of Monday, October 16. While it is estimated that there are 167 others under the rubble of residential buildings destroyed by Israeli attacks, and they have not yet been recovered.
The Observatory added in a report on Tuesday that it documented the injury of 3,250 other children with various injuries, including at least 1,240 whose wounds require specialized medical care. They suffer the bitterness of pain, loss, and the severity of wounds as a result of Israel’s intense attacks on residential neighborhoods and civilian headquarters, in flagrant violation of protection rules. Children protected under international and humanitarian law.
The Observatory also said that the children of Gaza have been severely harmed since the start of the current Israeli attack, and have emerged as the first target of the ongoing “mass slaughter” against the Palestinians, where lives have been lost, families torn apart, and devastating effects have been inflicted on children.
While it was mentioned that among the children of the Gaza Strip who survived the killing, we find that they lost one or both parents, or their homes were destroyed or damaged, or they were forced to migrate with their families to escape Israeli attacks, or for fear of forced eviction warnings, according to what the Quds News Network reported. Palestinian.
While he noted the documentation of hundreds of photos and video clips showing the smashing of children’s heads, and shrapnel penetrating small stomachs and hearts, at a time when the scattered rubble of residential buildings destroyed above the heads of their residents smashed the bodies of hundreds of young children.
He added that the largest percentage of wounded children in the Gaza Strip were left suffering from horrific burns, shell wounds, and loss of limbs, in addition to record rates of psychological impact and terror, while they were left with their families without any safe shelter.
The youngest child martyr in the Gaza Strip
The child, Nabila Nofal, is the youngest martyr in the Gaza Strip. She was born on October 7, the start of the current round of fighting, and was killed just a week later in an Israeli raid on Gaza, after shrapnel penetrated her tender body.
In a statement to the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory, Palestinian Talaat Abu Lashin said that 16 members of his family were killed in an Israeli raid on their house, in the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, including 8 children who were sleeping.
As for “Salah Al-Khayyat,” he was saddened by the killing of his wife, Heba, and their three children, among 15 others, in their family home in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, as a result of an Israeli air strike that destroyed the house above their heads, and only his child, Ilya (4 years old), survived.
The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory also said that the impact on families and children is not only represented in the number of deaths and injuries, but also in the severe psychological impact, and their impact on the interruption of humanitarian supplies of electricity, water, and other basic services.
Panic, fear and shock for the children of Gaza
While he explained that what is happening to the children of Gaza, who represent more than 45% of the local community, threatens them with strong psychological symptoms such as night terrors, hallucinations, compelling obsessions, excessive panic, intense fear, and severe difficulty sleeping, in light of the targeting of residential areas.
Euro-Med also confirmed that the children of Gaza are paying a heavy price for the repercussions of Israel's indiscriminate attacks, not only because they are vulnerable to death and severe injury, but also to the harmful psychological effects and residues that may accompany them for the rest of their lives.
While he pointed out the dangers of the extremely high rates of depression for children in Gaza, especially if one of their family or relatives is killed in front of them, or they are seriously injured, or their house is destroyed and its contents are scattered, and some of them may lose their speech from extreme terror.
The Observatory pointed out that these psychological complications currently threaten tens of thousands of children in Gaza, who were forced into forced displacement and became homeless with relatives or in shelter centers, or even who were forced to remain in the open.
