The Massacre of Childhood in Gaza: When Life is Harder than Death

The sane human mind cannot imagine what is happening today in Gaza, a complete crime against Palestinian childhood. The massacre led by the Israeli occupation since October 7, 2023, is not merely a war against fighters or a struggle for land, but it is - clearly and dispassionately - a systematic plan to exterminate entire generations, especially childhood. These are individuals who have not carried weapons, have not threatened the security of an entity, and have committed no sin other than being born Palestinian.

The Palestinian child is no longer exempt from targeting; rather, they have become the focal point of the target, bombed in their homes, assassinated in their mothers' arms, or dying of hunger searching for a loaf of bread or a sip of water, or being buried under the rubble of their schools or targeted in aid queues. There is no distinction between an infant, a student, or a child playing in the alley; the bombardment does not discriminate but deliberately aims to strike children specifically, as part of a declared policy of extermination that disregards any laws or international covenants.

Gaza is no longer just a battlefield; it has become a mass grave for children who are being killed while clinging to life. Some were not even given the chance to be born; they were born amid bombardment and died amid bombardment without being granted even a moment to breathe. Reports from the Gaza Ministry of Health indicate that more than 18,000 children were killed by mid-2025, while tens of thousands were injured, most of whom lost limbs, sustained permanent disabilities, or suffered psychological trauma that cannot be healed.

However, the tragedy is not limited to killing alone; it surpasses that to strip the child of the most basic components of life. There is a whole generation deprived of education following the destruction of schools, subjected to severe hunger after food has been besieged, and left to die slowly due to the collapse of the health system and the blockade on medical supplies. Tens of thousands of children suffer from chronic illnesses, burns, or deformities without any treatment amidst a complete collapse of medical infrastructure.

There are children who have lost their parents or entire families and have been forced to live as orphans in displacement tents or overcrowded shelters, suffering from cold and thirst, unaware of the meaning of safety, and not understanding why they have been doomed to live this hell.

The targeting of childhood in Palestine is not a collateral effect of war; it is a systematic policy executed with precision. The occupation understands perfectly that the Palestinian child is the key to the future, and that their survival means the continuity of resistance, so it chose to start from the roots, to exterminate the generation that has not yet been born, and to break the spirit of the surviving child so that they do not one day carry the banner of the land they were born on.

The greater tragedy is that the whole world sees, hears, and remains silent - no investigation committees, no sanctions, no international trials; on the contrary, the killer is rewarded with more weapons and political support, while the victim is suffocated with increased blockade and starvation, as if the blood of the Palestinian child is of no value, as if it does not enter into the calculations of humanity.

Amidst this brutality, life in Gaza becomes uglier than death; death becomes a relief, and life becomes unbearable oppression, in a world that criminalizes even hunting birds, yet remains unmoved when an entire childhood is slaughtered and entire cities are turned into warehouses of corpses.

What is happening today in Gaza is a decisive moral test for all humanity: either to stand with the Palestinian child and save them from their modern-day holocaust, or to accept the extinction of the last remnants of conscience in this world.