Watan-The Israeli playwright Motti Lerner spoke strikingly about the brutal war waged by the occupation army on the Gaza Strip and the enormous toll it has taken on the lives of children. Lerner stated, “I don’t want to be a citizen in a country that kills 11 thousand children in Gaza in my name? 11 thousand children? To protect myself? Have we gone mad?”
The Israeli writer added, “This reminds me of the Nazi Aktion T4 program and what it committed against four thousand Jewish children.” He continued, “My request may seem foolish, but let us conduct the war as civilized people so that more than 11 thousand children are not killed in it.”
Children and women constitute 70% of war victims, as reported by the United Nations, which warned that women and children make up about 70% of those who have been killed in the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
“لا أريد أن أكون مواطنًا في بلد يقتل باسمي 11 ألف طفل”.. كاتب إسرائيلي يتبرأ من ممارسات جيش الاحتلال#الجزيرة_مباشر pic.twitter.com/KBjHApBdnb
— الجزيرة مباشر (@ajmubasher) January 21, 2024
This comes as humanitarian workers affiliated with the United Nations cautioned that children are “born into hell” in Gaza, and many other children are likely to die due to the increasingly harsh conditions in the sector.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that there have been nearly 20 thousand births since the start of the widespread Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip. The organization added that chronic problems in accessing aid have led to performing cesarean sections without anesthesia, while other women have been unable to give birth to their children who die in the womb due to the pressure on the medical staff.
Continuous bombardment and displacement directly affect newborns, leading to increased rates of malnutrition, growth problems, and other health complications. It is believed that about 135 thousand children under the age of two are at risk of severe malnutrition under current conditions, amid “inhuman” conditions in temporary shelters, inadequate nutrition, and unsafe water.