The bloodiest face of its genocide: Israel has killed 2,100 Palestinian babies and toddlers in Gaza (EN/AR) – Occupied Palestinian Territory

Palestinian territory – The Israeli army has killed 2,100 Palestinian babies and toddlers under the age of two, out of some 17,000 children it has killed in the Gaza Strip since the genocide began on October 7, 2023.

The number of Palestinian children, whether infants or children in general, killed by the Israeli army is horrific and the speed at which they are killed is unprecedented in the history of modern wars. It also represents a dangerous trend based on the dehumanization of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is targeting Palestinians daily, methodically and broadly in the most gruesome and brutal ways possible, and almost without a break for 10 consecutive months.

The Israeli bombardments of homes, buildings, residential areas, shelters and IDP tents have caused many children to lose their heads and limbs. This is a flagrant violation of the rules of distinction, proportionality, military necessity, i.e. the legal and moral obligation to take the necessary precautions to minimize the deaths of civilians and children.

The Euro-Med Monitor field team documented today, Tuesday 13 August, the killing of four-day-old twins Aser and Aysal Muhammad Abu al-Qumsan. The twins were killed this morning, along with their mother Juman and grandmother, in an Israeli bomb attack on a residential building in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

When the babies’ father left the apartment to obtain a birth certificate for his two newborn children, he discovered that all of his relatives, including the twins’ grandmother, had been killed in an Israeli raid on the building.

Despite its advanced technological capabilities, the Israeli military targets homes and shelters, knowing that they house civilians, including women and children. Nevertheless, it bombards these targets with highly destructive bombs and rockets, with the aim of causing as many civilian casualties and serious injuries as possible. This is demonstrated by the systematic, widespread and repeated attacks by the Israeli military on civilians in the Gaza Strip, as well as the use of highly destructive and indiscriminate weapons, especially against areas with dense civilian populations.

The case of the two babies, Asher and Aysal, is not unique. There are daily reports of child victims, including babies, in the Gaza Strip.

One of the most remarkable testimonies came from 42-year-old Abdul Hafez Al-Najjar, the father of a child named Ahmed, who was one of the many victims of an Israeli massacre on May 26. The massacre targeted displaced people living in tents in the Barksat area, west of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Ahmed, along with three of his brothers and their mother, were among many other victims who were all beheaded and murdered. Ahmed’s father told the Euro-Med team: “My child Ahmed was very beautiful. He was one and a half years old. He was beheaded in the Israeli bombardment. His head was severed from his body. When I saw him, I felt sad. He was buried without his head.”

According to the Euro-Med Monitor team, an Israeli airstrike on Rafah’s Al-Salam neighborhood in the southern Gaza Strip killed another set of twins on March 3. Six-month-old Wissam and Naeem Abu Anza were killed in the strike, along with their father and 11 other family members.

Wissam and Naeem’s mother, Rania Abu Anza, said she struggled to become a mother for 10 years before finally giving birth to the twins. “They implanted three embryos in me, two of them stayed and there they were,” she explained. “They bombed the house and killed my husband, my children and the rest of the family in the carnage.” Ten days ago, it was six months since the twins died.

Shaimaa Al-Ghoul was nine months pregnant when her home in the southern city of Rafah was bombed on February 12. Her husband and two sons, Mohammed and Janan, were killed and she was wounded by shrapnel that entered her abdomen, punctured her uterus and eventually entered the fetus.

Al-Ghoul stated that before the death of her husband and two children, her husband, Abdullah Abu Jazar, had given her “dates, sweets and a (gift) bag in honor of his expected newborn.” She said that she had indeed given birth to a child, whom she named Abdullah after his father, but the boy only lived for one day. Baby Abdullah died from the wound caused by the shrapnel that penetrated his mother. Al-Ghoul thus lost her husband and three children.

Euro-Med Monitor reports that over the past 10 months, countless unborn children have died in hospitals due to lack of oxygen and electricity, inadequate care and the specific targeting of hospitals.

Israel continues to kill thousands of Palestinian men and women in the Gaza Strip, most of them of childbearing age, including pregnant women, and thousands of children, including infants and toddlers. According to the meaning contained in the definition of genocidal acts under Article (2) of the Convention for the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, there is no doubt that Israel’s systematic and widespread killings of Palestinian civilians, which account for at least 92% of the total number of deaths resulting from the genocide, will have a negative impact on the population growth and reproductive capacity of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for generations to come. Some 50,000 Palestinians, including thousands who were trapped under the rubble long enough that they are now considered dead, have been killed by Israel since October 7. An additional 88,000 Palestinians have been injured by Israel since then. These deaths and injuries will undoubtedly affect Palestinians as a national and ethnic group for generations to come.

Every day, children are reported dead in the Gaza Strip as a direct result of Israeli crimes legally classified as acts of genocide, including starvation, thirst, blocking access to basic necessities such as milk, and withholding medical care. The majority of these child deaths are not included in the official victim count released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as there is no specific system in place to identify such victims.

Due to Israel’s genocide, which has been going on for 10 months, Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are being denied their fundamental rights and are not protected in any way by international law. They have become primary, direct and deliberate targets of the Israeli army and have even been the victims of premeditated killings and direct executions.

In addition to arbitrary detention, Palestinian children have been subjected to crimes such as sexual abuse; enforced disappearance; torture and other inhuman treatment; starvation; siege; severe psychological harm; deprivation of education through the widespread destruction of schools; and denial of access to health care and other necessities of life. Many Palestinian children have also been subjected to family dispersal and loss of parental care.

One of the primary goals of Israel’s genocide is to leave a lasting legacy of these crimes that will affect the victims for the rest of their lives. The majority of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip have experienced psychological trauma that will likely be difficult to treat: thousands of children have lost one or both parents; have had limbs amputated; have suffered severe burns or other serious injuries; and/or have suffered from hunger, malnutrition, and dehydration; all of which will have a detrimental impact on their physical and psychological development.

Most children in the Gaza Strip have lost their homes, their financial security, and family members, as well as their education. This will have serious and far-reaching consequences for their future and their ability to enjoy their other rights, making them more vulnerable to poverty, unemployment and exploitation. The Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip have led to the widespread destruction of civilian objects, including homes, private property, livelihoods, production, and the economic and commercial system, forcing Palestinians to migrate, either directly or indirectly.

The international community must act swiftly and decisively to end the crime of genocide, protect the lives of all Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, prevent Israel from turning the Gaza Strip into the largest children’s cemetery in modern history, and end the blatant double standards applied to Israel and its powerful Western allies and backers.

Israel and its allies must be held accountable for their flagrant violation of international humanitarian law by killing and targeting Palestinian children and denying them access to food, shelter, clothing and medical care, including vaccinations, as laid down in the Geneva Conventions and their two 1977 protocols. These protocols should enable them to realise their rights.