Dispatch #125 White Lesbian Age 71 Considers Israel’s Unprecedented Killing, Maiming, Orphaning Children – Surviving Children May Never Recover
- Kathleen A. Maloy
- Jan 16, 2024
- 7 min read
January 16th 2024
1091 Days Since Inauguration of First Woman Vice-President
7 Days Until the 2024 Presidential Primaries Begin
571 Days Since SCOTUS Ruled American Women Don’t Have Human Rights
On January 14th, Biden published a statement that began: “Today we mark a devastating and tragic milestone – 100 days of captivity for the more than 100 innocent people” held hostage by Hamas. He declares that the hostages are always in the forefront of his mind.
No mention of the 100,000 Palestinian casualties – only Israeli families warrant empathy for their devastating and tragic milestone. Biden notes the 4-year-old returned hostage, but, no mention of the more than 10,000 Palestinian children killed, and the tens of thousand wounded, maimed, and orphaned.
Could the message about whose lives matter and whose lives don’t be any clearer?
More Than 10 Children a Day Lose a Limb in Three Months of Brutal Conflict According to Save the Children. While the NGO found that more than 1,000 children have had one or both legs amputated since 7 October, this count is likely to be an underestimate. Many of these operations on children were done without anesthetic, with the healthcare system in Gaza crippled by the conflict, and major shortages of doctors and nurses, and medical supplies like anesthesia and antibiotics.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza are fostering the most dangerous place in the world to be a child as death and destruction fills every corner of the besieged enclave. According to Jason Lee, Save the Children’s director for the occupied Palestinian territory, children are much more vulnerable to explosives. They will also need much more time and effort to recover from the injuries they cause.
“Small children caught up in explosions are particularly vulnerable to major, life-changing injuries. They have weaker necks and torsos, so less force is needed to cause a brain injury,” Lee said in a statement. “Their skulls are still not fully formed, and their undeveloped muscles offer less protection, so a blast is more likely to tear apart organs in their abdomen, even when there is no visible damage.” Lee added that over 1,000 children have had one or both legs amputated, citing UNICEF, averaging out to over ten children a day over the last three months. To make matters worse, many of the injured children had to endure the painful procedures without anesthetic due to the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.
I’ve seen doctors and nurses completely overwhelmed when children come in with blast wounds. The impact of seeing children in that much pain and not having the equipment, medicines to treat them or alleviate pain is too much for even experienced professionals in a war zone, the sights and sounds of a young child mutilated by bombs cannot be reconciled let alone understood within the bounds of humanity.
“The suffering of children in this conflict is unimaginable and even more so because it is unnecessary and completely avoidable. This suffering, the killing and maiming of children is condemned as a grave violation against children, and perpetrators must be held to account.
Gaza’s children may never recover from Israel’s relentless attacks.
“All the statistics when it comes to the suffering of children in Gaza are disproportionate due to the incredibly large number of children who live in Gaza – over 1 million,” said James Deneslow, head of Save the Children’s Conflict Time, [as well as] the incredible density of the population and, of course, the incredible intensity of the military operations and the conflict of the last three months”. As the number of injuries compounds in the Gaza Strip amid the collapsed healthcare system, it is difficult for child amputees to receive the follow-up care they need. Children with amputated limbs will need lifetime support.
Deneslow pointed out that the children’s suffering will not end upon their release from hospital. “When children lose limbs, it’s not the same as when adults lose limbs,” he said. “Crucially, their bones continue to grow, so the amount of operations and surgical interventions that children who have lost arms and legs will… stay with them for many, many years. And there’s a huge amount of pain management as well, which of course, Gaza’s healthcare system currently is not able to meet. www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-more-10-children-day-lose-limb-three-months-brutal-conflict
Gaza children being killed or mutilated in ‘very extreme’ numbers, Australian doctor says. An Australian doctor who coordinated medical aid to Gaza has expressed horror at the “huge proportion of children being killed or maimed for life” as the UN security council again delayed a vote on a ceasefire resolution. www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/21/gaza-children-being-killed-or-mutilated-in-very-extreme-numbers-australian-doctor-says
10,000 children killed in nearly 100 days of war Save The Children International
Jason Lee, Save the Children’s Country Director for the occupied Palestinian territory, said: “For every day without a definitive ceasefire, 100 children on average have been killed. There can never be any justification for killing children. The situation in Gaza is monstrous and a blight on our common humanity.
“For nearly 100 days, children have been paying the price for a conflict they have no part in. They are terrified, hurt, maimed, displaced. One percent of the child population of Gaza has already been killed by Israeli bombardments and ground operations. Others risk being killed by starvation and disease with famine coming ever closer. For children who have survived, the mental harm inflicted and the utter devastation of infrastructure including homes, schools, and hospitals has decimated their futures.
Children in Gaza surviving the violence are enduring unspeakable horrors, including life-changing injuries, burns, disease, inadequate medical care, and losing their parents and other loved ones. They have been forced to flee violence, often repeatedly, with no safe place to go, and face the terror of an uncertain future. www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-10000-children-killed-nearly-100-days-war
Children Born in Gaza Now Will Live With the War Forever. In her January 9th opinion essay in the New York Times titled For Gaza’s Pregnant Women and Newborns, the War Will Never Be Over, Dr. Alice Rothchild, a retired obstetrician and gynecologist, discusses the horrific conditions facing these women and the consequences for their newborns.
There are approximately 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, all struggling with a lack of stable shelter, inadequate nutrition and polluted, salty water. Prenatal, postnatal and pediatric care are difficult to obtain. U.N. agencies have dispatched lifesaving medicines and equipment to Gaza but it’s not enough to meet the needs of the population. Extreme shortages of pain medications, antibiotics, seizure and diabetic medications and blood are common. According to the World Health Organization, of the more than 180 women delivering babies each day, 15 percent are likely to encounter complications and be unable to obtain appropriate obstetric and pediatric emergency services. All the while, the threat of injury or death from bombings and military action looms, as does unimaginable emotional trauma.
If these mothers and their children manage to survive the war, they will grapple with its effects for the rest of their lives. Health research into multiple areas of armed conflict (such as Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia and Kosovo) reveals that these kinds of conditions are linked to an increase in miscarriages, congenital abnormalities, stillbirths, preterm labor and maternal mortality. Other studies of armed conflict from 1945 to 2017 show that children exposed to war are more likely to suffer from poor living conditions and sanitation and multigenerational poverty caused by the loss of educational and economic infrastructure.
Pregnancy and childbirth occur in a sociopolitical context; repeated military assaults, the collapse of the health care system and food supply, the absence of adequate shelter and general safety, have lasting impacts on mothers and babies — well after the fighting is quelled.
Rising food scarcity and malnutrition in Gaza resulting from the current assault will likely lead to its own complications. According to UNICEF, pregnant women suffering from poor diet and nutrition see an increased risk of pre-eclampsia, hemorrhage, anemia and death. Stillbirths can occur, and children may be affected by low birth weight, wasting and developmental delays. www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/opinion/children-mothers-pregnant-gaza.html
Denying children in Gaza access to food and basic supplies will have lifelong consequences for Palestinian children with rising numbers at risk of malnutrition, Save the Children warns 10 January 2024.
Since violence escalated in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory on 7 October, an Israeli-imposed siege has left all one million children in Gaza without enough to eat, including about 335,000 children under five now at risk of severe malnutrition or starvation.
Elizabeth White, a Save the Children director in the occupied Palestinian territory, said: “Israeli authorities are denying children in Gaza access to lifesaving food and services. The deprivation of sufficient food, water, and medicine is rendering child survival in Gaza nearly impossible. Families are being isolated into areas unable to sustain human life. They are forced to evacuate to so called ‘safe’ areas in the south of Gaza only for those areas to then be attacked. Israeli airstrikes have already killed thousands of children, the effects of starvation on children’s bodies will kill even more. The children who survive will likely face lifelong physical and mental health issues, robbing a generation of any chance of a healthy life and future.” www.savethechildren.net/news/gaza-blocking-food-supplies-gaza-will-have-life-long-impacts-children-malnutrition-rising
Gaza: Children Under Attack by UN Humanitarian - Exposure
"I have never in my humanitarian career seen this level of suffering, desperation and deprivation,” said Gemma Connell, OCHA team leader in Gaza.
Doctors Without Borders reports: “Hospitals are flooded with patients, amputations and surgeries are being carried out without proper anesthesia, and morgues are flooded with dead bodies.”
Entire families are being killed in aerial bombardments, and children are paying the heaviest price. UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder calls it “a war on children.” He explained: “Most crises impact children terribly, they have a casualty rate of children around 20 per cent. But in Gaza, that rate is 40 per cent." “This is twice as lethal to children as conflicts we’ve seen in the last 20 years,” he added. https://unocha.exposure.co/gaza-children-under-attack
The US bears equal responsibility with Israel for wreaking these unspeakable crimes against Palestinian children. The Houthis have one demand for ceasing their attacks on ships: a ceasefire. Instead, Biden chooses to bomb the Houthis and to continue the genocide in Gaza.
IN GENOCIDE CASE AGAINST ISRAEL AT THE HAGUE, THE U.S. IS THE UNNAMED CO-CONSPIRATOR South Africa laid out a meticulous case detailing Israel’s genocidal intent. The U.S. supported it all. https://theintercept.com/2024/01/11/israel-genocide-hague-south-africa/
Biden, May the Blood of These Children, Whose Lives You Have Declared Don’t Count, Forever Stain and Define Your Legacy Negating All Other Accomplishments.
Comments