The three weeks of war between Israel and the Palestinian militias in Gaza have caused more children to die than the annual total of minors who have died in conflict zones around the world since 2019, the NGO Save the Children reported this Sunday.
Since the war broke out on October 7, more than 3,340 children and adolescents have died in Gaza, as well as 33 in the West Bank and another 29 in Israel, a figure “higher than the number of minors who have died in armed conflicts around the world in the past one year” in about twenty countries, the organization said.
The children killed in the Strip represent 40% of the total number of Palestinians killed in the entire enclave due to Israeli bombings, which are now more than 8,000, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Strip, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas.
Added to this figure are “another thousand missing children in Gaza, who are assumed to have been buried under the rubble,” so “the number of fatalities is likely to be much higher,” Save the Children said.
According to their data, more than 6,300 minors have been injured in Gaza, 180 in the West Bank and 74 in Israel.
“Three weeks of violence have torn children from their families and destroyed their lives at an unimaginable rate,” Jason Lee, director of Save the Children in the Palestinian territory, said in the note.
He denounced that “the figures are shocking and, given that violence not only continues, but is spreading in Gaza at this time, many continue to be at serious risk.”
“The death of a child is one too many, but these are serious violations of epic proportions,” so “a ceasefire is the only way to ensure their safety,” Lee added.
He also appealed to the international community to “put people before politics” and warned that “every day spent debating leaves children dead and injured.”
“Children must be protected at all times, especially when they seek safety in schools and hospitals,” Lee stressed.
The war between Israel and Gaza began on October 7, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that left more than 1,400 dead, more than 5,400 injured and 230 kidnapped in the hands of the Islamists.
On the twenty-third day of fighting, the Israeli Army sent more troops to Gaza this Sunday to continue the expansion of its ground operations, which began on Friday with the deployment of tanks.
Given this, Save the Children “is seriously concerned that the expansion of the ground operation in Gaza will inevitably cause more fatalities.”
