Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Save the Children said Monday that in addition to the some 14,000 children killed by the Israeli military according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, another 4,000 are estimated dead under rubble, and 17,000 are wandering around on their own, unaccompanied and separated from their parents (who may have been killed by Israeli fire).
The UN High Commissioner’s office gave several examples of these massive bombs being dropped when there was no sign of an obvious military target. It wasn’t that, as some Israel apologists suggest, “people get killed in war,” or that you can’t kill off Hamas without breaking a few eggs. The pilots weren’t always aiming for Hamas operatives. They were trying to destroy Palestinian society.
17,000 lost children. Jesus of Nazareth told a parable (Luke 15:3-7) to explain to the “Pharisees and tax collectors” why he hung out with sinners and the disreputable. It goes, “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Likewise, which parent with several kids who lost one would not drop everything, give the care of its siblings to a relative, and go frantically looking for the lost child?
In 2000, the US House of Representatives even encouraged communities to join the Amber Alert program for abducted children, so that alerts are sent out by the Emergency Alert System, Google, Facebook and other means. We do this as communities for a single child.
How frantic would we be at the news of 17,000 lost little children?
The 17,000 separated from their families are scavenging for food and forced to drink dirty water. Many of them have chronic diarrhea and are developing diseases like hepatitis. They are frightened and grieving, and deeply traumatized. Some are suffering from malnutrition and will suffer permanent cognitive and affective damage from which they will never recover. Some are wounded or amputees.
This little girl describes her life:
Middle East Eye Video: “Gaza Child Separated from Family”
“All the people died. Everyone. Two homes were levelled on our street. We got scared, and stopped going home. We want to go back to our homes. They struck our houses and we had to flee, uncle. We were scared. We want to go home. We want a ceasefire. We are tired of sheltering in these schools while the bombing is ongoing. We get scared.”
Play it with the sound turned up so you can hear it in her voice.
Then there are the children who have lost the adults in their family, and have formed tiny bands to fend for themselves, the tweens taking care of the infants and toddlers.
NBC News: “A story of survival: 13-year-old takes care of seven siblings amid the war in Gaza “
Here is the YouTube transcript of this tale of children in Rafah, translated from Arabic:
The little boy, Mohammad Ali Yazji says, “This is Mayar, and this is Tulin, and this is Youssef, and this is Zaher, and this is Suwar. And this is Ward, and this is Fatima, and this is Mays.”
The little girl says. “I’m with my little sister, who keeps crying while I wash her clothes. Her clothes are dirty and my mother has been martyred, and my father is in Gaza [City], not able to get the message to us. We don’t know what to do.
Mohammad Ali says, “I’m sitting here, making milk for my little sister. trying to feed her since I haven’t fed her milk since the morning. She’s crying because she’s hungry and there’s no one to nurse her.
“I mean, I feel it. I mean, no one understands her. My mother used to, you know, when she got hungry she would feed her. She knew how to quieten her when she cried.
“I don’t know how to do any of this. I mean, this is my little sister, and when I see her, I feel so sorry for her. I don’t know what to do for her. At least bring us milk and Pampers. Where should I get this stuff.
“Ah, from this hunger… she cries out of hunger.
“Go pigeon, don’t take too long, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep.
“To sleep.
“I’m not sure if there’s anyone left in our family alive except for my uncle. When I saw the international aid, I mean, people know that our father is missing and our mother has been martyred, but they bring us little help or not at all. At most, we get light aid locally.
“Every day we get a can of beans or a can of chickpeas, maybe, or we get a few vegetables, a little financial aid
“I go to bring them something so they forget the war and do not get bored — a toy to play with, and, I mean, to bring them something to forget the hurt.
“We are supposed to have a father and a mother, but now there’s nobody, and when we sleep, all my siblings, they sit there, and every time there’s a noise, they start crying and screaming. There’s nobody to make them feel safe.”
Six month old Tulin, whose name means “moonbeam,” fell ill with gastroenteritis.
This video report was from NBC News Digital. It was produced by Ala’a Ibrahim, edited by Jacob Condon, with Jonathan Rinkerman the production manager, Marshall Crook the senior producer, and Rachel Morehouse the executive producer. God bless their souls. I’m not sure it was ever aired. The major networks haven’t covered the Palestinian side of the Gaza War for the most part.
As for the children dead under rubble, it should be remembered that the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights has found instances where the Israeli Air Force (IAF) dropped 2,000-pound bombs on residential apartment buildings, flattening them and spreading destruction all along their quarter mile blast radius. It takes most adults about 5 minutes to walk a quarter of a mile. Imagine your neighborhood. If you walked for five minutes, how many houses or apartment buildings would you pass? Imagine them all blown to smithereens.
Children and others trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings could not be rescued in Gaza, as they might be in most cities in the United States. The Israelis have limited the import of earth moving equipment since they slapped an extensive economic siege on Gaza in 2007. And the IAF has targeted such equipment in its air raids over the past eight months.
Children who were alive under the rubble couldn’t be gotten out, no matter how frantic their parents or relatives or neighbor were. They died slowly of lack of water. After about three days of not drinking anything, most people die of renal failure. They would have been parched, whimpering, head hammering, in the dark, alone. Some of the 4,000 who were not immediately turned into red mist by the Israeli bombs died like that.
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