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Children in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

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Israeli violence against Palestinian children has been condemned by Amnesty International, as well as by British writer Derek Summerfield.

According to an editorial concerning the level of Israeli violence against Palestinian children published by the British Medical Journal on October 16, 2004, "the Israeli army, with utter impunity, has killed more unarmed Palestinian civilians since September 2000 than the number of people who died on September 11, 2001. In conducting 238 extrajudicial executions the army has also killed 186 bystanders (including 26 women and 39 children). Two thirds of the 621 children (two thirds under 15 years) killed at checkpoints, in the street, on the way to school, in their homes, died from small arms fire, directed in over half of cases to the head, neck and chest — the sniper's wound. Clearly, soldiers are routinely authorised to shoot to kill children in situations of minimal or no threat."

The opinion piece, written by Derek Summerfield, an honorary senior lecturer at London's Institute of Psychiatry, received a vociferously hostile response from the Israeli government and pro-Israeli advocates on the pages of the British Medical Journal and elsewhere.

Some critical responses were less hostile. For example, columnist Beth Goodtree wrote:

"about two thirds of the 2800 or so (1866) non-Israelis killed were combatants. (1) Moreover, 365 of the non-combatants killed were killed by actions of their own side." [1]

Summerfield also wrote that he felt some medical institutions and political leaders do not speak out about the alleged Israeli atrocities against children because they are "silenced by a fear of being labelled 'anti-semitic,' a term used in a morally corrupt way by the pro-Israel lobby in order to silence. How are we to affect this shocking situation, one which to this South African-born doctor has gone further than the excesses of the apartheid era."


In 2003, Amnesty International claimed that:

  • 2,500 Palestinians, most of them unarmed and including some 450 children, have been killed by the Israeli army
  • more than 900 Israelis, most of them civilians and including more than 100 children, have been killed by Palestinian armed groups since ... September 2000.
  • Tens of thousand of Palestinians and thousands of Israelis have been injured, many maimed for life.

Amnesty International blamed the Israeli government for war crimes: "using excessive, disproportionate and reckless force against unarmed Palestinians and in densely populated residential areas, which frequently result in the killing and injuring of unarmed civilians, including children." It also criticizes Israel for "disproportionate and discriminatory restrictions and collective punishment, which violate international law."

Palestinian militants were also condemned by Amnesty International: "The deliberate killings of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups are a crime against humanity."

Incidents

  • On September 7 2004, 10-year old Raghda Adnan Al-Assar was struck in the head by an Israeli bullet while sitting at her desk in UNRWA's Elementary C Girl's School in Khan Yunis camp. She never regained consciousness and died on 22 September.
  • On June 1 2004, two ten-year old boys in UNRWA's Al-Umariye Elementary Boys' School in Rafah were hit by bullets fired from an Israeli tank stationed near the school.
  • On May 18, 2004, 16-year-old Asma al-Mughayr and her 13-year-old brother Ahmad al-Mughayr were shot dead within minutes of each other by a single bullet to the head while they were on the roof-terrace of their home in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. According to Amnesty International, the bullets that killed the children were fired from the top floor of a nearby house, the highest building in the area, which had been taken over by Israeli soldiers shortly before the two children where shot. Journalists found an empty Israeli army ammunition box, spent bullet casings and debris from Israel Defense Force food rations next to holes which Israeli soldiers had pierced in the walls of the house to use as sniper positions. From the Israeli sniper nest, there was a clear view of the al-Mughayrs' roof-terrace, where the two children were killed. According to the family, Ahmad ran downstairs to call for help when his sister was shot in the head. He was then shot in the head as he re-emerged from the staircase onto the roof-terrace.
  • In March 2003, 12-year old Hoda Darwish was sitting at her desk when an IDF soldier at an observation post on the outskirts of Khan Yunis fired a bullet into her head, blinding her.

International response

Amnesty International accuses Israeli forces of inadequate investigations or lack of investigations into hundreds of unlawful killings of children by the Israeli army over the past three and a half years.

Amnesty International urges the Israeli authorities to ensure:

  • that a thorough, independent and impartial investigation is promptly carried out by judicial authorities;
  • that the scope, methods and findings of the investigation be made public;
  • that those responsible for these killings are brought to justice.

See also

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