Gaza child death toll tops that from four years of global wars
More children have been killed in Gaza in just four months of fighting than in four years of armed conflicts around the world combined, the United Nations says.
The UN says more than 12,300 children died between October and February in the Gaza Strip, mostly in Israeli air strikes, citing its own data and reports from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. The UN’s own calculations show that 12,193 children were killed in fighting in all armed conflicts globally between 2019 and 2022.
At least 31,272 people have been killed in Gaza since October last year, according to the Gaza health ministry. Although it is run by Hamas, the ministry’s casualty figures for previous conflicts have been found to be accurate.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, called the numbers “staggering”.
“This war is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future,” he said.
He spoke just before a United States official warned that Washington would not be in a position to resume funding for the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), following a scandal around the alleged involvement of 12 of its 13,000 Gazan employees in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
UNRWA said at least one of its staff members was killed and 22 injured when Israeli forces struck one of its food distribution centres in southern Gaza yesterday. The Israeli military acknowledged the strike, saying it had targeted a Hamas commander.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had killed Muhammad Abu Hasna in the strike in Rafah, describing him as “involved in taking control of humanitarian aid and distributing it to Hamas terrorists.” Hamas confirmed the death of Abu Hasna, who it said was the deputy head of police operations in Rafah.
Meanwhile, Israel has accused United States President Joe Biden of attempting to overthrow Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as the rift between the two allies deepens.
Israeli media yesterday circulated a statement by an unnamed “top Israeli official” which claimed that Biden was trying to undermine the administration by demanding that a ground operation in Gaza’s south not go ahead.
Some broadcasters suggested that the statement – which followed a US intelligence report this week that suggested the Netanyahu government could be replaced by a more moderate one – came from the Israeli prime minister himself.
“Israeli citizens, and not anyone else, elect the prime minister,” the statement said.
Israeli media did not name the source, but Channel 12 described the statement as coming from “the most senior Israeli political source you can imagine”.
The extraordinary outburst appears to have been triggered by the US intelligence report casting doubt on Netanyahu’s “viability as a leader”.
The Biden administration has made clear its frustration with Netanyahu’s plans to mount a ground offensive in Rafah, the only pocket of land in the territory largely unaffected by fighting.
Netanyahu received an unexpected boost yesterday when Benny Gantz, a member of the coalition government tipped as the next prime minister, backed the operation in Rafah. But Gantz also called on the Israeli leadership to be smart and create “humanitarian solutions” before pressing ahead with the offensive.
Biden has been personally attempting to pressure Netanyahu into scrapping the offensive on Rafah. Last week, he was caught on a “hot mic” after his State of the Union address saying the Israeli leader would have “come-to-Jesus meeting” with him, which gave rise to speculation that he might make some of the US military aid conditional on the IDF’s operations in Gaza. –