Ref: 137/2012
Date: 21 November 2012
Time: 13:30 GMT
Tuesday, 20 November 2012, marked the Universal Children’s Day, devoted by the international community to promote, respect and protect children’s rights globally, according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989. This occasion coincided with an Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip that has been ongoing since 14 November 2012. In the context of this offensive, 28 Palestinian children have been killed and 258 others have been wounded. The humanitarian conditions have been deteriorating, including the psychological health of dozens of thousands of children who have been experiencing unprecedented panic and fear caused by indiscriminate military attacks that have targeted all areas of the Gaza Strip, leading to forcible displacement of thousands of families.
Since 14 November 2012, Israeli Occupation Forces have launched hundreds of attacks against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip. These attacks have targeted hundreds of houses, governmental buildings and facilities, and agricultural, industrial and marine facilities throughout the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces declared that they attacked more than 1,460 targets throughout the Gaza Strip, and claimed that they targeted buildings and facilities belonging to Hamas and other Palestinian organizations. They further claimed that they targeted in their aerial and marine attacks members of armed groups. Investigations conducted by PCHR refute these Israeli claims, as 136 Palestinians have been killed, including 91 civilians (66.9% of the total number of deaths). The civilian victims include 28 children. Additionally, 941 Palestinians have been wounded, including 922 civilians, 258 one of them are children. Israeli airstrikes have completely or partially destroyed hundreds of civilian facilities and houses, rendering hundreds of children and their families homeless. The number of children in the Gaza Strip, whose total population is approximately 1.7 million, is estimated at 800,000.
Many airstrikes have targeted families at homes, killing dozens of civilians, including several children. On 19 November 2012, 8 civilians, including a woman and her 4 children, were killed when an Israeli warplane bombarded a house belonging to the al-Dalu family in Gaza City. On the same day, Israeli warplanes bombarded a house belonging to Fuad Khalil Ibrahim Hijazi, 46, in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalya. Hijazi and his 2 children, 4-year-old Mohammed and 2-year-old Suhaib, were killed, and another 28 civilians, including 7 members of the Hijazi family, were wounded. Hijazi’s wife was seriously wounded in the attack. On 14 November 2012, Ranan Arafat, 5, was killed by an Israeli airstrike against her family’s house in Gaza City. On 15 November 2012, Israeli warplanes launched hundreds of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. Two children were killed while inside their houses in Beit Hanoun: Odai Jamal Nasser, 15; and Fares Ahmed al-Basyouni, 8. Another 16 children were also wounded. On the same day,
Haneen Khaled Ahmed Tafesh, died of a previous shrapnel wound in the head, which she had sustained when Israeli warplanes bombarded a plot near her family’s house in Gaza City. On 17 November 2012, Tamer and Jumana Salama Ibrahim Eseifan, 4 and 2 respectively, were killed when Israeli forces bombarded a plot near their family’s house. Additionally, 18 children were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli airstrikes. On the same day, Tasneem Zuhair Mohammed al-Nahhal, 10, was killed by an Israeli attack in the Beach camp in Gaza City, while she was playing near her family’s house. A child, Eyad Abu Khousa, and another 2 children, were killed in a similar attack in the central Gaza Strip.
In a very serious development, on Tuesday, 20 November 2012, Israeli aircrafts dropped thousands of leaflets ordering residents of border areas in the Gaza Strip to leave their homes and move towards other areas. Many families were forced to leave their homes and move towards UNRWA schools. UNRWA opened 13 schools (4 ones in the northern Gaza Strip, 8 ones in Gaza City and one in al-Boreij refugee camp) to receive thousands of families that left their homes. The number of people who have left their homes in the northern Gaza Strip and headed to UNRWA school is estimated at 20,000, about half of them are children. This morning, PCHR’s staff visited Gaza New Preparatory School “A” and met with the principal and a number of families that had left their homes in the northern Gaza Strip. At least 350 families counting 1,800 individuals, more than half of them are children, resorted to the school. They were distributed into 34 classrooms, 60-70 persons in each. They were forces to sit on the ground having few covers for their children.
The already hard health conditions in the Gaza Strip have deteriorated because of the chronic crisis of the shortages of medicines and medical needs in all public health facilities throughout the Gaza Strip, and hospitals have admitted at least 1,000 casualties since the beginning of the offensive. The psychological conditions of hundreds of thousands of children have been at serious risks because of the panic they have experiences as a result of indiscriminate shelling and explosions of bombs and missiles. Israeli aerial and marine attacks have been focused on densely-populated areas, while there are not shelters of whatsoever for the civilian population. Thousands of children suffer from post-traumatic disorders because of daily attacks, especially at night. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely-populated areas in the world; its total area is 365 square kilometers and the density of population in some areas amounts to 4,000 persons per kilometer.
The government in Gaza and UNRWA have been forced to close all educational institutions in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the offensive. At least half a million children have been deprived of having access to schools and kindergartens. Many educational facilities have been also extensively damaged by Israeli attacks in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip.
In light of the above, PCHR:
