Foreign doctors who have volunteered in Gaza say they have treated more than 100 children shot in the head or chest, clear evidence, they argue, that Israel is deliberately targeting minors.
In testimonies collected by the Dutch daily Volkskrant, 15 out of 17 doctors described encountering children under 15 with single bullet wounds to the head or chest. Together, they identified 114 such cases during their missions in Gaza. Many of the children died while others survived with devastating injuries.
“This is not crossfire. These are war crimes,” American emergency physician Mimi Syed told Volkskrant. She documented 18 children shot in the head or chest.
California trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa told the paper he initially assumed the cases were isolated until he encountered multiple boys in one hospital, all shot directly in the head. Later, when he compared notes with other international doctors, he realised it was widespread. “This is targeted fire. Someone is pulling a trigger on a child,” he said.
Forensic pathologists consulted by Volkskrant reviewed X-rays and confirmed the wounds were consistent with long-range sniper or drone fire, not shrapnel from explosions. Former Dutch army commander Mart de Kruif said the sheer number of children shot in the head or chest made the claim of “accidents” implausible.
“This is not collateral damage. It is intentional,” he said.
‘Deliberately targeting children’
This is not the first time that an investigation has found that Israel is deliberately targeting children.
In August, the BBC World Service uncovered more than 160 cases of children in Gaza shot by Israeli forces. In 95 of those cases, the children were hit in the head or chest – injuries, doctors said, that leave little doubt they were deliberately targeted.
Most of the victims were under 12 years old, according to the BBC’s findings. The incidents stretch from the opening weeks of the war in October 2023 through July this year.
The Israeli military has denied that it is deliberately targeting children.
However, in a report released in December titled Generation Wiped Out: Gaza’s Children in the Crosshairs of Genocide, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) said Israel was carrying out genocide against Gaza’s children
The group said Israel is deliberately killing children, inflicting severe physical and mental harm, and forcing them into conditions meant to destroy them.
Raji Sourani, the PCHR’s director, said Israel’s tactics have made children the majority of victims. “The Israeli occupation forces’ attacks have deliberately targeted children by striking residential areas and shelters, rendering children the majority of fatalities,” he said.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, nearly 20,000 children have been killed by Israel since the war began on October 7, 2023.
An average of 28 children are being killed daily in Gaza due to Israel’s military operations and its restrictions on the delivery of direly needed humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.
At least 21,000 children have been left disabled during the war, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reported in September.
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