UN on Gaza: 257 Palestinian Children Killed, 1,080 Injured

by Tina Kells | January 9, 2009 at 02:25 pm

371 views | 35 Recommendations | 16 comments

A weekly UN report on the protection of civilians (PDF) released yesterday claims that as many as 257 children have been killed and 1,080 injured since Israel began retaliation in Gaza for a series of Hamas rocket attacks. According the the UN report nearly a third of the total casualties since hostilities escalated on December 27, 2008, have been children.

The UN has called for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian intervention in the Gaza region (PDF). The report also demands that a war crimes investigation be launched as soon as it is safe to send UN representatives to the Gaza area.

A photo of 4-year-old Kaukab Al Dayah, just her bloodied head sticking out from the rubble of her home, covered many front pages in the Arab world Wednesday. "This is Israel," read the headline in the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The preschooler was killed early Tuesday when an F-16 attacked her family's four-story home in Gaza City. Four adults also died.
As many as 257 children have been killed and 1,080 wounded — about a third of the total casualties since Dec. 27, according to U.N. figures released Thursday.

Hardest on the children is the sense that nowhere is safe and adults can't protect them, said Iyad Sarraj, a psychologist hunkering down in his Gaza City apartment with his four stepchildren, ages 3-17. His 10-year-old, Adam, is terrified during bombing raids and has developed asthma attacks, Sarraj said.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas in response to its repeated rocket attacks on southern Israel, and is doing its utmost to avoid civilian deaths. However, foreign aid officials note that civilians can't escape blockaded Gaza and that bombing crowded areas inevitably leads to civilian casualties. The Israeli military has used tank and artillery shells, as well as large aerial bombs.

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Karen Hatter

at 15:42 on January 9th, 2009

The video, 'Who is Really Killing Palestinian Children?', posted here, shows images of Palestinian children, stating they are indocrinated to hate.

Indoctrination of hatred can also be found being taught to Israeli children.

This link shows Israeli children autographing bombs, called 'gifts', for Lebanese children, to be used during an Israeli campaign directed at Lebanon.

The children are caught in a deadly, vicious cycle of violence.

Tina Kells

at 16:11 on January 9th, 2009

Absolutely true! I (sadly) think that indoctrination and propaganda happen on all sides of any conflict.

moonwolf

at 16:24 on January 9th, 2009

There is absolutely no disputing that Hamas are not a bunch of kindergarten teachers, and that they have become fanatical, enraged nut-cases.

Since psychologist and those who study all aspects of human nature know for certain that this kind of behavior is not innate, it doesn't just happen, and that their are always powerful causal factors in this kind of acting out by individuals and groups, the behavior of Hamas portrayed in this video and in many other places begs the question; Why do they behave this way?

As soon as one asks that question with honest curiosity and looks back in history and does any amount of solid research the answer becomes glaringly obvious.

All of us civilized, calm, armchair pundits would behave like Hamas if our families, homes, communities, schools, institutions, futures, livelihoods, businesses, hopes and dreams had been systematically crushed, shot, murdered, burned, annexed, expropriated, starved, tortured, jailed, walled-off, humiliated, and blackmailed into oblivion over four decades by an enemy intent on destroying every last one of us and completely purging what they consider their God given land of any remnant of us.

Under such conditions we would seek solace and hope in our religion, as the Jews have done under the brunt of such behavior from others, and we would use our religion to fire our hatred, and spark our rage into a bright and glowing flame of revenge that would be all we would have to sustain ourselves in the face of the onslaught, and we would fight to the last breath and we would teach our children to hate the monsters and fight to the death as there would be no choice!

Does Hamas hate all Jews and want to see them dead? You bet. I don't condone it but I understand as deeply as possible for a bystander why they do.

israeli.agent

at 16:30 on January 9th, 2009

.....and we would teach our children to hate and fight as there would be no choice!

Yes, exactly. Can add this also. In addition to the promised half acre land in "jannath - ul - firdous " and 10 virgins, being children, tell them that there will be high-speed internet ,video games ,7.1 dolby stereo system, Mc Donnalds/KFC outlets and go-carting facilities too.

There is no more motivation than the above said , to the children.

Agent.

moonwolf

at 16:35 on January 9th, 2009

I agree, it is horrendous agent, but if it were me, I'd prefer my children to die with guns in their hands fighting the enemy rather than to die passively from hunger, torture, shock, bombs, bullets, beatings, the loss of all they love and a loss of all hope.

Karen Hatter

at 21:08 on January 9th, 2009

The Last Poets said:

Blessed are those who struggle

Oppression is worse than the grave ....

israeli.agent

at 16:46 on January 9th, 2009

If it were me, I would run like hell, children ahead and then keep them alive so that they can get stronger and wiser and they will have any chance to win.

Throwing children against a professional and technologically superior army is nothing like feeding them to meat grinder. The story of David is by large is obsolete long before.

May be it is only me. Hell..it really hurts.

Agent.

moonwolf

at 21:04 on January 9th, 2009

israeli,

Run where? Do you know how big Gaza is? It hurts over here too amigo!

poor oligarch (not verified)

at 17:01 on January 9th, 2009

"I would run like hell, children ahead and then keep them alive"
You neglect to explain just where you'd have them run to?

Prince Siraj (not verified)

at 12:31 on January 13th, 2009

How can be the children be the terrorists and be a threat to the powerful nation - Israel? i have no doubt that these pics in the video uploded here by Tina Kells are morphed...As everbody knows that Gaza is a poor nation, the people there dont have enough money for their daily bread and butter how can they produce expensive Guns and Missiles? how can be they threat to Isreal?

Just give a thought about it..

Regards,

Siraj.

PS: Visit

http://www.religion-terrorism.blogspot.com/

israeli.agent

at 12:56 on January 13th, 2009

"the people there dont have enough money for their daily bread and butter how can they produce expensive Guns and Missiles? how can be they threat to Isreal?"

How about this?

Saudis and other sympathetic nations has lot of money. For them helping Palestine cause means buy them a gun and then turn it towards Israel.

...."I have no doubt that these pics in the video uploded here by Tina Kells are morphed"

Yes, It must be. Only Israelis are entitled to buy the morphing license of the software. Heck - only they can use even the cracked vesions.

Agent.

Prince Siraj (not verified)

at 13:11 on January 13th, 2009

Well Agent if we agree with you for the sake of debate that Saudis and other sympathetic nations are(will) fund Gaza to attack on Israel... then why dont Israel attack the source (Saudi or anyother nations that are funding Gaza)... why? is Isreal afraid of them?

Siraj.

israeli.agent

at 13:46 on January 13th, 2009

Can't you see , Siraj?

Israel attacks only to defend. This is history. Whevever any country / countries attacked them, they gave it back. Whenever her citizen's life is threatened, Israel responded suitably. Remember Munich - Israeli olympic athlets were shot dead (1972), the terrorsts were hunted down or the Air France airliner was hijacked to Uganda witn 258 passengers (1976) and freed by an IDF commando operation.

And you know what happened to the combined Arab armies that attacked Israel in the past years.

Yes , Israel is afraid of them.

Agent.

Prince Siraj (not verified)

at 14:30 on January 13th, 2009

"Israel attacks only to defend. This is history. Whevever any country / countries attacked them, they gave it back. Whenever her citizen's life is threatened, Israel responded suitably."

Did Gaza ever bombed Israel as Israel is bombing on Gaza and did Gaza ever killed innocent children of Israel, as Israel is killing in Gaza?

René

at 22:37 on January 14th, 2009

These are your truly innocent victims, for surely they know not what they do:

The Palestinian Authority has created a violent, death seeking reality for their young children, having taught them to see death for Allah – Shahada – as an ideal, which they are expected to achieve. As Arafat said in his message to children: "Is it not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a Shahid?"

The examples presented in this report are a representative selection, demonstrating the comprehensive campaign waged by the Palestinian Authority. If just 1% of the children attempt to fulfill their "duty" and seek Shahada through suicide terrorism, the ramifications will be cataclysmic. The targets of the future Palestinian terror wave will be Israel, and in all likelihood, other Western democracies, as well.

Today an entire generation of Palestinian children, victims of the PA’s indoctrination and propaganda, believe that their death for Allah in war is the highest achievement attainable in life. This education is an indelible stain on Palestinian society, and places the Palestinian Authority among the greatest child abusers in history.

Picture worth a 1,000 words? Try these of PaliKids and tell me what they are worth?

Tomislav (not verified)

at 18:42 on January 28th, 2009

I never believed Hamas propaganda for a moment but it seems that all the people around me do and I don't have enough information to convince them that some of those children are probably sacrificed for a greater cause of martyrdom. Israel should provide the world with data instead of letting us only get Hamas side. But the film about Beslan is wrong. Yes, it was the muslim terrorists who took those children as hostages but those children were killed by Russian special forces and not by the terrorists. Putin refused to negotiate and wanted only to beat and kill the terrorists over the bodies of the hostages because he knew he could. He did that in Dobrovka, he'll do it again. Maskhadov was tracked and killed rather than used as negotiator and Politkovskaya was poisoned and later killed too rather than allowed to report about the tragedy that was about to occur.