Vulnerability of Children in Gaza Increases

Vulnerability of Children in Gaza Increases

WESTPORT, Conn. (Jan. 9, 2009) — Save the Children is reiterating its call for free and effective access for humanitarian assistance in Gaza so that aid agencies may provide much-needed relief to increasingly vulnerable children and so that their families can access essential services.

Yesterday the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) demanded immediate access to the wounded in Gaza, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) announced that it was suspending activities there, highlighting the dangerous operating environment for humanitarian work.

"With every passing day of this conflict, the vulnerability of children in and around Gaza increases," said Annie Foster, Save the Children's team leader for the emergency. "Humanitarian agencies must be able to reach children and families in need. Two weeks have passed with children living under extreme duress."

Save the Children is striving to meet the needs of an increasingly vulnerable population in north and southern Gaza. Over the last six days, the agency has delivered life-saving food supplies to some 9,500 people, including 4,700 children, despite a worsening security situation.

Save the Children is calling for a peaceful solution to the current crisis that endangers the lives of nearly every child in Gaza, and the lives of Israeli children in areas subject to attacks. Save the Children is calling for a cessation of hostilities by all parties including air and ground assaults from Israel and rocket attacks from Gaza.

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Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org) is the leading, independent organization creating lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world. For more than 75 years, Save the Children has worked to improve the lives of children and their families through programs in health, education and economic opportunities, and during times of crisis and conflict. Save the Children USA is a member of the International Save the Children Alliance, a global network of 27 independent Save the Children organizations working to ensure the well-being and protection of children in more than 100 countries.



http://www.savethechildren.org/newsroom/2009/vulnerability-gaza-children.html

A Palestinian child stands inside his home in the Jabalya refugee camp, damaged during an Israeli incursion and airstrikes

Twenty children killed in Gaza fighting: official

Twenty children killed in Gaza fighting: official

January 6, 2009

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Salah Samouni banged his head in grief against a wall inside the hospital morgue where the bodies of his three little nephews lay on the floor.

His relatives screamed at exhausted doctors, begging them to find people still buried under rubble.

After 10 days of a relentless Israeli assault, Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, is overwhelmed. Bodies are now crowded two to a morgue drawer, and some - like those of the Samouni children - are on the floor.

Many of the wounded are treated in hallways because rooms are full. Harried doctors and nurses run on little sleep, and the hospital is powered by emergency generators after shelling damaged power cables.

"Who ever comes with a head, we check his pulse. If there's no pulse, he's straight to the morgue. If there's no head, well, goodbye," said hospital official Raid Arini on Monday.

The hospital scenes have only worsened since Israel began a ground offensive on Saturday.

Most of the dead and wounded now arriving at Shifa are civilians, as Israel's offensive shifts from airstrikes to artillery shelling and ground fighting close to densely populated areas.

Israel says it is targeting only the Hamas militants, who control Gaza, in an attempt to halt seven years of rocket fire at Israeli communities.

But the 555 Palestinians who have been killed include about 200 civilians, said Dr Moaiya Hassanein of the Gaza Health Ministry.

On Monday, 20 children between the age of two and 15 were killed, he said.

Since the military offensive began on December 27, three Israeli civilians and two soldiers have been killed.

Many casualties come through the shabby halls of Shifa, which echo with the sound of people screaming and the wail of ambulance sirens.

Red-eyed nurse Ahmad Abdul Salam, 34, smelled of sweat and his clothes were stained with blood. He said he couldn't sleep.

"When my shift ends, I help my colleagues. These are our brothers and friends who are being harmed," he said.

The hospital's most gruesome scene is in its morgue, where blood pooled on the floor and refrigerators meant to hold 35 bodies crammed in 70 by laying them side-by-side in drawers.

The three Samouni boys, Issa, 3, Mohammed, 4, and Ahmad, 5, lay on the floor on a grey mat. They appeared baby-faced and asleep, save for a large bandage wrapped around Issa's head.

The children's father was also killed in what relatives said was an Israeli strike on a house in eastern Gaza City where the family had fled to escape fighting nearby.

Relatives wept nearby, and one man screamed at a doctor to save other family members he said were still under the rubble of the house.

"For God's sake, rescue them!" he pleaded.

No militants were seen at Shifa. There has been heavy fighting and Israel has said its forces have killed dozens of Palestinian gunmen, but Hamas has not listed its casualties and it is unclear where militants are being treated or where their bodies are stored.

Shifa has been powered by generators since power completely cut out in Gaza City three days ago.

Israel has not replenished Gaza's power station with industrial fuel since fighting began, and air strikes have badly damaged power lines.

UN health official Mahmoud Daher said the generators were meant as an emergency back-up but were now used all the time. He said he feared they would break down, which could be fatal to about 70 people hooked up to lifesaving devices.

Medics appeared exhausted and defiant.

Mohammed Salman, 26, a volunteer medic who was washing blood from the inside of an ambulance in the hospital garden, said he had treated people with horrific injuries, including headless children and a woman whose stomach had been torn open. The woman screamed, "Leave me and save my children," he said, and burst into tears.

Israeli aircraft have hit three ambulances in Gaza since the campaign began, killing seven medics, Gaza health officials say.

A medical building owned by a relief organisation not connected to Hamas was also bombed, said Daher. The building was destroyed, along with an ambulance, three mobile clinics and donated medicines, he said.

Israeli army spokespeople say they have no records of any of those strikes.

Health official Raed Arini said he has stopped filling out the space on death certificates left for "reason for death".

"The reason for death is the Israeli army," Arini said, as medics rushed in with more wounded people.

AP


This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/06/1231003983982.html

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/twenty-children-killed-in-gaza-fighting-official/2009/01/06/1231003983982.html

Gaza children traumatised as Israeli bombs rain down

Gaza children traumatised as Israeli bombs rain down
by Adel ZaanounPublished: December 30, 2008


GAZA CITY (AFP) "We are scared... that we can die at any moment," said 11-year-old Mohammed Ayyad, still terrified hours after a massive Israeli bombardment of Hamas government buildings next to his house in Gaza.
Like the rest of Gaza's children, he has been traumatised by the four-day assault on Islamist Hamas targets which has transformed many areas of the overcrowded territory into piles of rubble and shattered glass.

"As they were hitting the centre (of Gaza City), we heard an enormous explosion and our house was filled with dust," he said. "We immediately ran towards the ground floor."

His six-year-old brother Ahmad "peed his pants. We were all scared because the planes are in the sky all the time and we could die at any moment."

Schools in Gaza have been closed since the Israeli strikes began on Saturday and children have passed the time examining the damage caused by the raids.

Near Ayyad's home, a group of children milled around rubble that used to be Hamas government buildings. One shrugged off the danger of being outside as the Israeli warplanes continued their sorties overhead.

"I run the same risk if I am at home or in the street," he said.

Another boy, Mohammed Bassal, said he and his brothers were shaken awake by explosions in the night.

"Debris from the broken windows fell on our heads, the electricity was cut off and we started screaming," he said. "My mother came and hugged us."

His 12-year-old brother Nidal added: "We're still scared. The Jews are crazy and they don't spare anyone, even children."

Iyad al-Sayagh, a mother who lives in the area, called the bombardment "a night of horror, the way the earth shook."

After the strikes began "I immediately got my kids down to my father's, who lives on the ground floor," she said. "With each missile the little ones became hysterical."

A neighbour, Abdel Jalil al-Khatib, covering the shattered windows of his apartment with nylon said: "We haven't slept for three days, but yesterday was particularly terrifying."

The overnight raids "turned the night in Gaza into hell," said Sarah Radi, a 29-year-old teacher.

"They say that they want to destroy Hamas, but it's not true. They want to annihilate the Palestinian people. What did the women and children do that they destroy their houses?"

According to Gaza medics, at least 39 children under 16 years old have died as a result of the Israeli strikes that have killed at least 367 Palestinians in Gaza since Saturday.

Among the latest victims were two sisters aged four and 11. They were killed when a missile struck their donkey cart in the north of the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday night, five sisters died when masonry from a mosque hit by an Israeli strike crushed their house.

"What's happening is a massacre that Gazans will remember for always," warned Samir Zaqut, a psychologist with the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP).

"When 360 people die under the bombs and the missiles, this causes post-traumatic stress amid children and adults, like depression, insomnia and schizophrenia," he added.

The UN children's agency UNICEF has said it is "deeply concerned about the impact of the current violence in Gaza on children."

It urged "all parties to the conflict to abide by their international legal obligation to ensure that children are protected and that they receive essential humanitarian supplies and support."

© 2008 Agence France-Presse



http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2008/12/30/gaza_children_traumatised_as_israeli_bombs_rain_down/afp/