Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza has pushed up the death toll of children and civilians, while the number of displaced people has risen to more than 100,000, according to an NGO on the ground in the Palestinian territory.
Over the past 12 days, one in five of those killed and almost a third of the injured Palestinians were children, the NGO Save the Children said. The number of dead among children has risen by more than 40 per cent since the ground operation began on July 17.
Beyond the “unacceptable death toll”, more than 72,000 children in Gaza are in desperate need of counselling and support after losing close family members, suffering injuries and seeing their homes destroyed, Karl Schembri, Middle East regional media manager for Save the Children, said when contacted.
In Israel, children living in areas under rocket attack also feared for their lives.
Two weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting in Gaza has killed more than 500 Palestinians and 20 Israelis.
“The last 48 hours have been the bloodiest, raising concerns about respect for the principles of civilian protection and proportionality under international humanitarian law,” Mr Schembri said.
“We call on both parties to respect the protection afforded to hospitals and schools, and recognise that they should not be targeted when innocent people have no other choice of refuge.”
Mr Schembri, who worked as a journalist in Malta and lived in Gaza for four years, said for many children this was the third war in six years.
“Besides the immense destruction of civilian infrastructure, children are once again being traumatised and will need longer term care and treatment to be able to recover and have some sense of normality restored to their lives.”
Thousands of families have been forced to flee from their houses and have taken refuge in schools, with relatives, in mosques and outside hospitals hosting family members, which however are also being targeted. News agencies yesterday reported four dead and between 60 and 70 wounded, including medical staff, when tank shells hit the Al-Aqsa hospital in the town of Deir el-Balah.
Save the Children yesterday opened its warehouse for its health partners in Gaza, distributing medical items, newborn kits and first aid kits to hospitals and clinics. It is also distributing hygiene kits to displaced families and visiting children in hospitals and at their homes in dangerous circumstances to assess their psycho-social needs.
Meanwhile, in Malta, Alternattiva Demokratika has called on the Prime Minister, who, it said, seemed to be totally ignoring Malta’s long-held position of defending the Palestinians’ right of self-determination, to urgently raise the issue with his EU counterparts.
“The hardships suffered, the land grabbing, the ill-treatment of Palestinians because of the illegal and immoral occupation by the Israeli state just leads to cycles of violence.
“The indiscriminate bombardment and shelling by Israel of the occupied territories is immoral and outrageous and must stop immediately,” chairman Arnold Cassola said in a statement.
He called the “savage and barbaric bombardment and shelling” of Palestinian civilians “scandalous”.
People can help by donating to www.savethechildren.org.uk.