Palestinian children Israel-Palestinian conflict

On February 7, a 10-year-old Saddam Rajab He died at the occupied west coast hospital after being shot dead by Israeli soldier days earlier. Saddam stood on the street in front of his home when Israeli soldiers stormed his village near Tulkarem and began to shoot.

CCTV footage shows the moment he was shot. He fell to the ground, squeezing his belly, and you curled into the fetus position. The first hospital he was hasty was, he was unable to be treated and therefore had to be transferred to another to Nablus. Along the way, the ambulance was held for hours at a checkpoint where an Israeli soldier laughed Saddam's father, saying: “I am the one who shot your son. God wishes, He will die. “

Saddam is one of the 13 Palestinian Children that the Israeli army has killed the occupied West Coast since the beginning of the year. The death rate of children killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers on the occupied West Bank, shockingly exceeded 220 since January 2023.

Saddam's story – like the stories of other Palestinian victims of children – have never made international titles. There was no reaction from the international community to his murder. This is because Palestinian children experience ruthless dehumanization.

This is obvious even in the few stories that enter the media spotlight, such as the six -year -old case The price is tuned, Who was killed by the Israeli army in Gaza on January 29, 2024, almost a year before Saddam was shot. Together with his aunt, uncle and cousins, Hind tried to evacuate from the city of Gaza to a car when they were surrounded by Israeli forces who fired at them.

While her relatives were killed, Hind survived the original fire and managed to connect with the Palestinian Society of the Red Crescent (PRCs). The issued record of her phone calls to the PCK asking for help, as Israeli tanks closed in her shocked world.

The ambulance that was sent to save her never returned, and Hind's calls to the PRC stopped. Nearly two weeks later, Hind's bodies, her relatives and the two linear workers, Yusuf Zein and Ahmed Al Madhun, were discovered. Subsequently investigations He showed that the Israeli army was shooting at the ambulance and the car in which Hind was stuck, even though they had received their coordinates.

While the story of Hind's brutal death made international titles – a rare case among over 17,000 children killed in Gaza – there were still attempts to dehumanize her and refuse her the status of a victim of a child. For example, when you report the University of Colombia's Student Camp, which baptizes a building after her, Explain CNN Hind Hall was a reference to a “woman” that was killed in Gaza.

Another particularly outrageous example of denying the status of a child of a Palestinian child is a January 2024 report on Sky News, in which an operator claims that: “accidentally, the homeless bullet found a way in the van forward and that killed three or killed three – either three- or three- or killed three or killed three or killed three or killed three or killed three- or three- or killed three- or three- or killed three- or three- or killed three- or three- or has killed three- or three- or killed three- or three- or killed three- or three- or killed three- or three- or killed three- or three- or killed three- Either three- or she killed three- or kill a three-year-old young lady. ” This “young lady” was a Palestinian child named Rukaya Ahmad Odeh Jahalin, who was shot in the back by Israeli soldiers while sitting in a taxi with her family on the west coast.

These examples illustrate what the Palestinian Academic Nader Shalhob-Cavriyan called. She invented the term to expose dehumanization, which accompanies violence against children in a colonial context. In the occupied and colonized Palestine, Palestinian children are deprived of their childhood to justify the brutality they have been inflicted.

For decades, Palestinian children have been depicted by the Israeli regime and the west or as more than other children or not children at all; They are often equated with adults who have the potential to be “terrorists”. In this way, they are considered dangerous and deny the state of the “child” and the connotation of the innocence provided to him.

Uncelling not only covers the murder and mutilation of Palestinian children; It also facilitates their abduction, detention and abuse of Israeli prisons.

Last year, Aiham al SalaimhA 14-year-old Palestinian boy from Silvan, Jerusalem, became the youngest Palestinian to sentenced an Israeli prison prison. Aikham was arrested two years ago and was accused of stones at illegal Israeli settlers.

He was questioned and placed under house arrest for two years before being sentenced under New Israeli legislation This allows the deprivation of Palestinian children for capital crimes classified as “terrorism”. Israel is Only a country in the world This systematically pursues and improves children.

Israeli media routinely mark Palestinian children as Aiham as potential security threats, indoctrinated minors or human shields, in an attempt to justify their prison and torture.

As the genocide extends into Palestine, the horrific reality is that more Palestinian children and adults will be killed by the Israeli army while the world is watching. Their murders will not be covered by the Western mainstream media, there will be no segments interviewing their families with collages from their childhood photos, nor will there be statements to condemn world leaders. Palestinian children were effectively deprived of their childhood and with it – their humanity.

The anger expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazee's editorial position.