June 25, 2024
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, that “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:
“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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment