Displaced Palestinian children play at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City where they have taken refuge on July 31.
Ramallah, August 5, 2014—As the Israeli assault on Gaza approached its one-month mark, Israel and Palestinian armed groups accepted today a 72-hour, Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, and Israeli troops withdrew from the Strip.
The announcement comes as international outrage directed at Israeli attacks on civilian structures grew over the weekend, when 10 civilians were killed in the third deadly attackon an UNRWA school in less than two weeks.
“When there is doubt in regard to the nature of the target, international law stipulates that locations typically used for civilian purposes must be presumed not to be legitimate targets,” said Rifat Kassis, executive director of DCI-Palestine. “Over the past month, Israeli forces launched attacks on homes, hospitals, and schools in Gaza, adding to concern that Israel is both in violation of international law and committing war crimes.”
Sunday’s shelling of the UN school serving as a civilian shelter in Rafah was immediately met with international condemnation.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the attack was “a moral outrage and a criminal act.” Echoing Ki-moon’s concern, Jen Psaki, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said the Israeli shelling was “disgraceful,” adding that the coordinates of the school had been “repeatedly communicated” to Israeli forces.
At the start of a seven-hour ceasefire declared by Israel on Monday, an eight-year-old girlwas apparently killed by an Israeli airstrike on her home.
The UN said a total of 408 children have been killed since the start of Israel’s military offensive on Gaza. Confirmation of an additional 75 children killed brought the total number of child deaths independently verified by DCI-Palestine to 241.
A drone missile killed seven-year-old Ahmad Walid Nasrallah Samour in the street outside his cousin’s home in Bani Suheila, near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on July 19. The boy left his house after hearing an explosion, and died from a second blast minutes later.
DCI-Palestine is still confirming child deaths two weeks after the exceptionally violent assault on the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City. A missile killed Narmeen Majed Yousef Daher, 10, and Dana Mohammad Majed Daher, 1, when it hit their home on July 20. Their bodies were recovered eight days later.
Hazem Naim Mohammad Aqel, 14, was hit by a drone missile while grocery shopping at a store with his cousin in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on July 23. Hazem was an orphan.
Israeli shelling in the Khuza’a neighborhood of Khan Younis killed Anas Hatem Suleiman Qdaih, 7, on July 24. Shrapnel punctured Anas’ body, as his family fled the home they had sought shelter in after it was struck with an F16 missile.
An F16 missile targeting a mosque in Al-Jurn neighborhood of Jabalia in northern Gaza on July 24 killed two children. The impact of the explosion threw rubble into the Abdel-Fattah Abdel-Nabi house, killing three-year-old Hadi Abdel-Hamid Abdel-Fattah Abdel-Nabi and his one-year-old-cousin Abdel-Rahman.
A targeted Israeli strike hit the home of Duaa Sami Ibrahim Saadeh, 12, in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, where she lived with her mother. Duaa’s father was not present on July 25 at the time of the attack, but received a phone call from the Israeli army telling him his house would be targeted. His attempts to warn his wife and daughter failed.
The body of 16-year-old Mohammad Ali Khalil Saidam was recovered in Al-Maghazi, central Gaza, on the morning of July 26. His parents said he disappeared four days earlier.
The killing of Hanan Salem Mohammad al-Far, 15, on July 28 was also confirmed. Hanan died, along with eight other members of her family, when a F16 missile hit and flattened her home to the ground in Al-Maghazi.
Two siblings, Hind Imad Mohammad Qadoura, 11, and her brother Yousef, 10, were killed by an artillery shell on July 28 alongside their four-year-old cousin Mohammad Musa Marzouq Elwan. The children were celebrating Eid al-Fitr holiday in their home in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
An Israeli F16 missile killed six children from one family in Al-Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza, on July 29. Hala Ahmad Hamdan Abu Jabr, 5, died with her cousins, Leen Anwar Mohammad Abu Jabr, 3, Salma, 1, Mohammad Raed Mohammad Abu Jabr, 3, Sama, 1, and Tuqa Salah Khalil Abu Isa, 4 months. A pregnant woman had a miscarriage in the attack.
Two cousins from one family were killed together on July 29. Rahaf Ala Jamal Abed Rabo, 2, and Jamal Mohammad Jamal Abed Rabo, 1, died when Israeli artillery shells hit their home in Jabalia, northern Gaza. A further three children from Jabalia, Bara’ Mohammad Husni Suleiman, 7, his sister Halima, 1, and Haneen Husam al-Din Khalil Hammouda, 12, were killed when their home was shelled.
Another five children from one family were confirmed killed by heavy Israeli shelling in Jabalia that same day. Isra’ Naim Nathmi Balata, 13, and her siblings Ala’, 15, and Yahia, 11, died alongside their cousins Hadeel Abdel-Karim Nathmi Balata, 17 and her brother Abdul-Karim, a baby of unknown age.
Israeli artillery shells killed two brothers early morning on July 29. Ibrahim Karim Abdullah al-Snairi, 9, and his brother Mohammad, 11, died in their home in Al-Zuwaida, central Gaza.
On the same day, nine children, along with 10 adults, from the Daheer family were killed when their home in Rafah was flattened in an airstrike. Tasneem, 3, Yamen, 5, Mohammad, 7, Momen, 8, Mohammad, 9, Ghaida, 11, Maria, 12, Salameh, 13, and Arwa, 17, all died in the strike.
In one Israeli F16 strike on Wednesday, July 30, 19 children died. The explosion killed everyone inside of the three story al-Dali building in Al-Mahatta, in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. Omar Waddah Hasan Abu Amer, 12, died alongside four of his siblings, Abdel-Ghani, 11, Imad, 10, Issa, 8, Ezzedine, 4, and five of his cousins, Mohammad Ahmad Suleiman Abu Amer, 12, Marah, 10, Yasser, 9, Marwa, 5, and Suleiman, 2. The strike killed three children from the Braikeh family, Osama Fayez Ahmad Braikeh, 16, Lama, 3, and Jana, 1. Also killed in the attack were three children from the al-Najjar family, Layali Wael Jamil al-Najjar, 2, Duaa Jamil Ahmad al-Najjar, 17, and Mohammad Jamil Ahmad al-Najjar, 12. Two siblings from the Muammar family died as well, Yazan Ahmad Marzouq Muammar, 3, and his sister Hala, 1. Their nine-year-old neighbor Aya Sami Anwar al-Ramlawi was also killed in the attack.
One further death on July 30 was confirmed. An Israeli artillery shell landed in the bedroom of Ali Ahmad Khaled Shahin, 15, and killed him while he slept.
Five children from one family were killed early Friday morning, August 1. The family fled their home when it was hit by two drone missiles, but a third missile hit them in the street, killing Nadeen Mahmoud Abdel-Salam al-Farra, 16, her siblings Yara, 7, and Mohammad, 12, and their cousins Lujein Basem Abdel-Malek al-Farra, 4, and her brother Abdel-Rahman, 8.
Another family, the Za’rab family from Rafah, also sustained heavy losses on August 1 when the house in which they were taking shelter was hit in an airstrike. Moatasem, 2, Waleed, 5, Rawan and Khaled, both 8, Shahd, 10, Mohammad, 12, Odai, 13, and Amir, Rami, and Ahmad, all 15, lost their lives in the attack.
The constant violence over the past month has made worse the existing dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The Israeli assault has internally displaced over 520,000 Palestinians, who are living in makeshift shelters and relatives’ homes. On Monday, the United Nations warned that overcrowding in their shelters, coupled with low water supplies and poor sanitation posed serious threats to the health of civilians in Gaza.
Early estimates indicate that 373,000 children in Gaza are in need of immediate psycho-social support due to trauma experienced in the past month alone.
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