EDITORIAL: Israel’s unspeakable atrocities in Gaza are taking a huge toll on children. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 14,000 children have been killed, roughly half of whom could not be fully identified as their bodies were harmed beyond recognition. Thousands more have sustained injuries, including maiming.
Around 1.7 million people in the Gaza Strip, says the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), have been internally displaced—half of them children. Their homes destroyed, many of them have been displaced numerous times and forced to live in tents with scarce access to food, water, and medical attention as hospitals and other facilities lay in ruins. Almost 3,000 malnourished children, asserts the UNICEF, are at risk of “dying before their families’ eyes.” No place in Gaza is safe for these deeply distressed people.
Offering them some hope of relief Foreign Minister of Greece George Gerapetriti, said the other day, “We need to face this tragedy very clearly. ... Europe should be open to injured people [from Gaza] and also to children who are now facing famine or other sorts of dangers.”
He has been quoted as saying that he had already discussed the idea with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, and is seeking partners in what he hoped would be a project to temporarily bring Palestinian children to the European Union.
Conscious of increasing immigration scepticism in EU countries where far-right parties opposed to immigration, especially from non-white nations, are resurgent Gerapetritis emphasised that the initiative was not linked to regular migration.
Because of the sensitivity of the issue he felt it necessary to add, “This is an obvious call of humanitarian assistance. We’re not talking here about economic migrants or other types of irregular immigration.” If and when his proposal materialises, majority of Palestinians who go to Europe to seek medical treatment and save their children from harrowing experiences of war, may not want to stay there for long. They know what the Israeli campaign of genocide in Gaza is aimed at: territorial expansion by driving them out of their ancestral lands. The Palestinian people regard resistance a duty they must do at all costs.
Meanwhile, Israel’s relentless bombings continue across the Gaza enclave. As of June 22, say media report, 37,396 Palestinians, including 103 journalists and over 224 humanitarian workers, had lost their lives. And some 9,300 of them are in prisons, many without any charges.
Reports also speak of systematic torture of these prisoners. The UN, having repeatedly iterated its concerns over Israeli actions, in a new report accuses Israel of committing crimes, such as forced starvation, murder or wilful killing, collective punishment, and intentional attacks on civilians. Sadly but unsurprisingly, enabling the Jewish state to commit such appalling crimes against humanity with impunity are US-led Western nations that claim to be defenders of human rights everywhere in the world.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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