War-shocked Gaza children 'want to die'

[grassfed]

Little has changed in Gaza since the war in January, with thousands of families still living in tents and homes and schools still just rubble and ruins.

But life for many children has never been the same since Israel launched its offensive three months ago.

In January, Israeli bombs flattened the main building of this school in northern Gaza, destroying eight of the school's 20 classrooms.

The students had already evacuated but the three-storey block was crushed; the top floor still dangles dangerously over the schoolground and giant slabs of jagged concrete hang precariously in mid-air.

And the 22-month blockade imposed on Gaza means few if any materials are getting in to rebuild shattered areas.

English teacher Ghada Abu Ward still sees the daily impact on her students.

"They are hesitant, frustrated, depressed, thinking and dreaming all the time - daydreams - then after that we lose concentration, and the bad achievements," she said.

"At the bravest times they've thought, 'I want to die. My father was dead in the Israeli attack - I want to be with them. So I want to die. There's nothing good about this life. At least when I die, I will be with my parents, and it will be heaven and paradise'."

Brother 'executed'
Twelve-year-old Omsyat Awaja faces a tougher ordeal than many; days before the school was hit, her family home was bombed.

Through a translator, she says her nine-year-old brother was shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Her parents too were shot and injured and now they live in a tent in a nearby camp.

"When my brother was between the hands of my father, and they executed him on purpose; they meant to kill, to shoot him," she said.

"I remember also when my parents got wounded and they were bleeding for five days.

"I hope that in the future there will be opening of border crossings, so the construction material will come in so I will have my house again. But the future will never bring me back my brother."

Israel's military has repeatedly described its armed forces as the "most moral in the world", saying they take care not to kill civilians.

It has justified the bombing campaign as retaliation for ongoing rocket fire into Israel by Hamas militants.

But Omsyat Awaja's father, Kamal, questions why his son had to die.

"The Israelis claimed through the whole war that they are democratic, they are civilised society," he said through a translator.

"But why did they execute my son? So all those, all the people, all the army, who's doing that, is not ."

For the Palestinians, there can be no peace while Gaza remains cut off from the outside world - a two-year blockade has kept Palestinians effective prisoners, and stopped essential supplies from reaching them.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/13/2541280.htm?section=world

[grassfed]

1. Caught in the middle: Palestinian boys wounded by an Israeli tank shell

edited for pic
see pic at link

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/13/2541280.htm?section=world

[Jefferson23]

2. Israels deterrence capacity photo.

[grassfed]

3. Gaza Kids bear IDF "Sniper's Wounds"

"Two-thirds of the 621 children 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".

- Dr Derek Summerfield, reporting on the results of a four-year field study in the occupied Palestinian Territories for the British Medical Journal. (cite)

T-shirt printed for members of an IDF elite unit who had completed sniper training, reads "The smaller they are - The harder it is!".
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/

[GoesTo11]

11. 621 children killed.

[Idealism]

6. Please stick to guidelines

I don't want this threat locked because a picture was posted, people need to read this.

[grassfed]

7. pic of boys removed

I/P guidelines say maps are ok --time will tell.

[grassfed]

4. Ethnic Cleansing of Israeli maps

Bruce Wolman has long been interested in the issue we raised earlier today on this site, Israeli maps that fail to show the Occupied Territories as Palestinian lands. He writes:

I was quite amused at the furor Hillary Clinton made a few years ago about Palestinians not showing Israel on the maps in their schoolbooks. When I was in Israel from 1999-2000, none of the tourist maps indicated the territories.

After Hillary's tirade, I did a search of official Israeli maps and tourist guidebooks, and lo and behold, what did I find - the same maps as the Palestinians used, except the area was called Israel rather than Palestine. No occupied territories, no disputed territories, just Greater Israel including Judea and Samaria. How did Hillary expect the Palestinians to draw Israel's borders when neither she nor Israel would officially state what Israel's borders are?

I hadn't checked for awhile, so here is some research I just did: a sampling of Israeli maps on the Web.

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/04/many-official-israeli-maps-fail-to-show-occupied-territories.html

[Tripmann]

5. Well done israel,

you've just created the next generation of hamas fighters with nothing to live for.

[azurnoir]

8. Infant succumbs to wounds sustained during latest Israeli strike

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37171

one must ask just what is Israels goal here?

[grassfed]

10. it's simple classic Ethnic Cleansing

This map shows exactly what's happening. Israelis will admit as much in private. It's absurd to debate it.

[Jefferson23]

9. This study was published back in 2006, when you add OCL to the

already devastated children, the results are beyond reprehensible. I suggest everyone e-mail information like this to their elected reps, Israel must not be allowed to embark on another mission to prove their deterrence capacity.


Ninety-eight Percent Of Gaza's Children Experience Or Witness War Trauma -- Queen's Study
Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 04 Aug 2006 - 8:00 PDT

Most children in the Gaza Strip have been tear gassed, have had their homes searched and damaged, and have witnessed shooting, fighting and explosions. Many have been injured or tortured as a result of chronic war that spans generations, says a recent Queen's University study.

According to the study, there is a pattern of violence against Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip that has serious and debilitating psychiatric and psychological effects.

"Gaza has been an occupied territory for a long time, and still is; Israel controls its borders, its air and water access. It has been described as a vast open-air detention centre" says Queen's community health and epidemiology researcher John Pringle. "Bombs are being launched into Gaza during this latest eruption of Middle East violence, but are being ignored in light of other crises."

The Psychological Effects of War on Palestinian Children is Pringle's Master's thesis and the only study of its kind, analyzing data from The Gaza Child Health Survey to describe relationships between war trauma and psychological problems in children.

According to the study, a child in Gaza who has had a severe head injury has 4 times the risk of emotional disorder. A child who has been severely beaten has 3.9 times the risk of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. A child who has witnessed friends injured or killed has 13 times the risk of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A child in a refugee camp has 5 times a greater chance of witnessing traumatic events and 4 times a greater chance of direct physical trauma.

"Children comprise 47 per cent of Gaza's population and are extremely vulnerable," Pringle adds. "It seems the international community is neglecting them, that somehow Palestinian children don't deserve the protections guaranteed under the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law. We must remember that where we drop our bombs, plant our landmines, and aim our guns, is where children are born, play, and go to school."

Mr. Pringle is also a member of Doctors Without Borders (MSF). MSF is an emergency medical humanitarian aid organization that primarily works in war-zones with populations in danger, usually in refugee camps. It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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For more information please call

Molly Kehoe
[e-mail]
Queen's News and Media Service

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/48580.php