Our Wednesday News Analysis | Death feels imminent for 96% of children in Gaza, study finds

This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,’ said Helen Pattinson, chief executive of War Child UK, which sponsored the assessment. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

"About 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza, approximately 90% of the territory’s total population, have been displaced, many several times. Half of that number are children who have lost their homes and been forced to flee their neighbourhoods.

More than 60% of the surveyed children reported having experienced traumatic events during the war, and some had been exposed to multiple traumatic events.

An estimated 17,000 children in Gaza are unaccompanied and separated from their parents, although the study notes the actual number may be much higher.

The report warns: “Being separated from their families places these children at a heightened risk of exploitation, abuse, and other serious violations of their rights.”

A new study of children living through the war in Gaza has found that 96% of them feel that their death is imminent, and almost half want to die as a result of the trauma they have been through."

A needs assessment, carried out by a Gaza-based NGO sponsored by the War Child Alliance charity, also found that 92% of the children in the survey were “not accepting of reality”, 79% suffer from nightmares and 73% exhibit symptoms of aggression.

“This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,” Helen Pattinson, chief executive of War Child UK, said. “Alongside the levelling of hospitals, schools and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war.”

The survey questioned parents or caregivers of 504 children from families where at least one child is disabled, injured or unaccompanied. The sample was split between southern and northern Gaza and was complemented by more in-depth interviews. The survey was carried out in June this year, so is likely to understate the accumulated psychological impact of Gaza’s children now, after more than 14 months of Israel’s assault on the territory.

The estimated death toll in Gaza is more than 44,000 and a recent assessment by the UN Human Rights Office found that 44% of the fatalities it was able to verify were children.

The new psychological survey published on Wednesday was carried out by ​​a Gaza-based organisation, the Community Training Centre for Crisis Management, with backing from the Dutch Relief Alliance as well as the War Child Alliance.

Read more: Death feels imminent for 96% of children in Gaza, study finds

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OPINION | ISRAELIS FEEL THE WAR IS OVER. FOR GAZANS IT'S A DIFFERENT STORY

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-12-16/ty-article-opinion/.premium/the-war-is-over-ask-the-dying-in-gaza/00000193-cba6-dd44-a9bb-fbe72c810000

By Jack Khoury
Published December 16, 2024

Palestinians mourn after an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza city, on Friday.Credit: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

"Talks about a deal to release the hostages are less relevant for them. The conversation is about who will die today and who will die tomorrow.

Thinking about Hamas or the Palestinian Authority,
about how much Yahya Sinwar or Mohammed Deif are to blame,
is likewise less relevant.

While the prime minister talks about a "war of revival.”
for the Palestinians, it's a war of survival."

The steady reports of intensive negotiations toward a hostage deal tell of efforts to define a prospective cease-fire as either temporary or permanent.

For Hamas and the residents of the Gaza Strip, this definition is critical, but from Israel's perspective, these are hollow terms with little military significance to them.

For Israel's citizenry and media, the war in Gaza has long been over. In September, attention shifted to Lebanon, and with the announcement of a cease-fire there, Israel is no longer at war in the north.

One doesn't have to be a pundit or military analyst to understand that the manpower needed to fight in the Gaza Strip or in Lebanon is no longer a challenge to Israel's defense establishment.

In terms of the home front, the Ben-Gurion doctrine is being implemented – combat must be moved to enemy territory. This is the situation in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and the Syrian Golan Heights.

For several months now there has been no threat of rocket fire to Israeli communities along the Gazan border, and many people there have returned to their work routine, or started the process of rebuilding. Commerce is lively in the area and work is carrying on.

It will take a long time for the mental wounds of the people affected and the bereaved families to heal, if ever. But one has to admit that people not directly affected couldn't care less about the situation. This is not a nationwide issue.

The situation is similar in the north. People are returning to their routine, and rebuilding has commenced. One cannot ignore the difficulties and the extent of the damage.

But the war, with all its pain, has ended. The only remaining open sore are the hostages. If they return, with a deal or without one, this chapter will come to an end in Israel.

Palestinians in Gaza, on the other hand, are still living through a war. More than two million civilians in the Gaza Strip have been left with nothing. The extent of destruction is inconceivable...

Read more: Opinion | Israelis Feel the War Is Over. For Gazans It's a Different Story

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GENOCIDE ISRAEL IS LIVING IN THE PAST

Source: Al-Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/12/16/genocide-israel-is-living-in-the-past

By Haidar Eid
Published December 16, 2024

A state founded on apartheid and settler colonialism is no longer viable.

Israeli troops deny access to Palestinian farmers to their own lands as they try to harvest olives, in Burqa near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on October 20, 2024 [File: Reuteres/Mohammed Torokman]

"Sometimes, I dream of having the ability to visit the future and return with a message.

In the future, I drive my car on the coastal road from Gaza in the south to Haifa in the north, listening to Fairuz’s angelic voice and telling my daughters about the horrific past when a state called Israel forbade us from seeing the rest of our country.

I tell them about a time when the world stood idle while Israel butchered tens of thousands of children and women and when, ultimately, people of conscience decided that enough was enough."

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters,” Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci wrote in 1929.

These words come to mind as I observe apartheid Israel disintegrating rapidly, in the historic sense of the word. It is a settler colony that is failing its mission, namely annihilating the native population and replacing them with “civilised” settlers. As the apartheid regime slowly implodes, the Palestinians, especially the Palestinians of Gaza, are paying a horrific price.

The “Jewish state”, as it defines itself, has committed unimaginable war crimes and has violated countless international laws. And it has managed to get away with all these crimes thanks to unlimited support provided by the colonial West.

Nonetheless, the collapse is proceeding at a steady pace. Many have failed to understand that this disintegration is inevitable, including, paradoxically, the leadership of the Palestinian people. It is for this lack of foresight that Palestinian leaders signed onto the Oslo Accords and made the racist “two-state solution” a national slogan camouflaged as “independence”.

Oslo effectively erased the settler-colonial nature of Palestinian oppression and instead presented it as an “ancient war” over the ownership of land. By signing the accords, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat completely disregarded the reality of settler colonialism the Palestinians were suffering in...

Read more: Genocide Israel is living in the past