The true victims of Israel's bombs: Palestinian children

Every day horrific and painful scenes emerging from the besieged Gaza Strip reveal the brutality of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the enclave, with the prime victims of the endless massacres being civilians, especially children and women, in flagrant violation of international laws.

Horrific images of children and infants with smashed heads and small bodies pierced and torn apart by shrapnel, are pouring out of Gaza by the minute as a result of the barbaric bombing that targeted civilian homes, hospitals and places of worship killing 3,785 martyrs, including 1,524 children and 1,000 women.

The Israeli missiles have destroyed the dreams and memories of these children, and left their mark as a witness to the extent of the criminality and ugliness of this brutal occupation, in scenes that are genocidal.

Children’s suffering is doubled because of the constant aggression and the cutting off of water, food and electricity, which has exhausted them and affected their psychology.

Targeting civilians, especially children, is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, while targeting civilians is a war crime and crime against humanity.

Deputy General Director of the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, Samir Zaqout, said the Israeli massacres taking place in the Gaza Strip against civilians, especially children and women, have gone beyond the commission of “war crimes to committing genocide against all humans in this region of the world, with the participation of America, Germany, Italy, and France.”

Zaqout said: “In the past, we appealed to the international community and accused it of collusion with the [Israeli] occupation and of applying double standards, but today it brazenly appears to be the partner in this crime against our people.”

According to the Palestinian expert, Israel deliberately targets children in its aggression on the Gaza Strip, which indicates its failure to achieve any military goal in order to increase the humanitarian cost and the burden on the people.

“This world is unjust and complicit in the [Israeli] crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza, because what is being committed amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and constitutes ethnic cleansing and genocide,” he added.

“The war on the Gaza Strip will end with Israel’s defeat, because everything it is doing is merely an act of revenge against civilians. In the end, the war will end and you will discover how fragile this state is,” he added.

Israel’s use of all types of internationally prohibited weapons, including white phosphorus and explosive barrels, in order to kill Palestinian civilians and bomb densely populated areas can only take place because it does not fear “accountability or punishment”, he explained.

“It is clear that 75 years of impunity and protection against any prosecution and accountability has encouraged Israel to commit everything that is prohibited,” Zaqout concluded.

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