Israeli forces have killed more than 12,300 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip since October 7, a staggering toll that’s likely to grow as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government prepares to invade the overcrowded city of Rafah.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller sidestepped questions about the killings of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa, and 6-year-old Hind Rajab and her family in Gaza, telling journalists that those inquiries should be directed to Israel.
“I think that question is appropriately directed to the Government of Israel,” said Miller. “I will say, on behalf of the United States, we have made clear to them that we want that incident to be investigated. They have told us they are investigating it.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, spoke of “carnage” in Gaza and a disproportionate Israeli military operation following the Hamas attacks.
Parolin condemned the 7 October Hamas attacks against Israel and all forms of anti-Semitism but he questioned Israel’s claim that it was acting in self-defense by inflicting “carnage” on Gaza.
“Israel’s right to self-defense has been invoked to justify that this operation is proportional, but with 30,000 dead, it’s not,” said Parolin.
Lawmakers like Reps. Andy Kim and Josh Gottheimer are eagerly pushing for more money to fuel the onslaught of horror that is murdering children in retaliation for the actions of a terrorist group.
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid: until February 2022, the United States had provided Israel $150 billion in bilateral assistance.
Since 2019, the US has provided Israel $3.8 billion each year.
With a total inventory of 362 F-16s, in addition to 106 F-15s, the Israeli Air Force has the world’s largest F-16 fleet outside the United States Air Force.
Israel was the first country outside of the United States to receive the F-35 “Adir” stealth fighter plane, a version of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, and is expecting to receive a total of 50 over the coming years.
In 2023, The State Department approved the sale of $320 million worth of guided bomb equipment to Israel. In October, President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass $14.3 billion in emergency military aid to Israel in its war with Hamas
The Associated Press is reporting that children make up roughly 43% of the total death toll in the Palestinian enclave. Women and children combined account for three-quarters of the death toll, according to the Associated Press report.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) at least 88 journalists and media workers were among the more than 29,000 killed since the war began on October 7—counting more than 28,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank plus 1,200 deaths in Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Reuters and Agence France Press in October that it would not guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip after the news agencies sought assurances that their stall would not be targeted by Israeli strikes.
The Israeli military said its forces are “operating to dismantle Hamas military and administrative capabilities” and taking “all operationally feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians including journalists.” The evidence shows that the assertion is a lie.
Israel’s offensive has wrought a level of devastation that outpaces other recent conflicts, with close to 30,000 people killed since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people.
In Gaza, the number of journalists and media workers killed has surpassed the total killed in the two-decade conflict in Afghanistan. The war in Gaza has seen journalists struggle to gain access to crucial areas, making it hard to convey the scale of the conflict’s devastation.
Samer Abudaqa was 46 when he was killed in an Israeli air raid on Khan Younis in Gaza on December 15. A photojournalist and cameraman who was born and raised in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis, he joined Al Jazeera Arabic in 2002.
Abudaqa was the father of three sons and a daughter.
On December 15, 2023, he was killed by a drone strike that targeted the Al Jazeera crew while covering the aftermath of an earlier air strike that killed at least 20 people at the Haifa School, which was being used by the United Nations Refugee Agency as a shelter in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Wael Al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, was also injured in his hand and stomach but was able to withdraw on foot. Samer, however, was unable to withdraw after his injury and continued to bleed for more than five hours, eventually succumbing to his wounds.
Dahdouh lost his wife Amna, son Mahmoud, daughter Sham, and grandson Adam in October after an Israeli air raid hit the home they were sheltering in at the Nuseirat refugee camp, after being displaced from their house in Gaza City.
The 53-year-old veteran journalist’s eldest son, Hamza, also an Al Jazeera journalist, was killed by an Israeli missile strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
During these five hours, Al Jazeera tried to coordinate with the Israeli military and tried to reach humanitarian organizations to rescue him or try to get him an ambulance. Three rescue workers were killed when an ambulance that tried to reach the wounded journalist came under fire.
Hind Rajab was a six-year-old girl from the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City who was killed by the Israeli military, after being the sole survivor of Israeli tank fire on the vehicle she fled in with six relatives on January 29, 2024.
“How many more mothers are you waiting to feel this pain? How many more children do you want to get killed?” asked Rajab’s mother.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society accused Israel of deliberately killing two of its medics, Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, who were sent to rescue her after the group acquired permission from the Israeli army.
Rajab’s story gained significant media coverage after her emergency phone call with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was released.
Hind and five of her family members were riding in a civilian car in the southwestern part of Gaza City, on Monday, January 29, at around 5 pm, when they were exposed to direct and repeated fire from the Israeli army.
Rajab’s family was fleeing the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City when their vehicle; a black Kia, was targeted by an Israeli army tank, killing Rajab’s aunt, uncle, and three cousins.
The only other survivor, Rajab’s 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamadeh, called the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to come and save her and Rajab. Hamadeh indicated at one point “They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to me. We’re in the car, the tank is right next to us.”
Hamadeh was killed while still on the line, which dropped causing dispatchers to call back with Rajab answering the call and stating everyone else in the car was dead.
Rajab was left as the only one alive in the car and stayed on the line with the PRCS for three hours, telling the dispatcher; “I’m so scared, please come, Come take me. You will come and take me?”
Her grandfather later told reporters that Rajab was injured in the back, hand, and foot.
Rajab, who was instructed to continue hiding in the vehicle, was set to be rescued by a PRCS ambulance. The audio of the phone call between the Red Crescent, Hamadeh and Rajab was published by the Red Crescent on February 3.
As the area was besieged, the Palestinian Red Crescent worked with the Gaza Health Ministry and the Israeli military to guarantee safe passage for their ambulance crew to go and save Rajab.
The ambulance reported that they were being targeted by the Israeli military, reporting laser lights targeting them, before the sounds of gunfire or an explosion before connection was lost. Shortly after the ambulance was dispatched, the Red Crescent lost contact with them. For 12 days, the fate of Rajab and the paramedics sent to find her was unknown.
On 10 February 2024, the family returned to the neighborhood after the withdrawal of the Israeli military, at which point they found the car with Rajab and her uncle’s entire family deceased. The family’s vehicle had its windows blown out, and the doors covered with bullet holes.
The Red Crescent ambulance was found a few feet away, destroyed by an Israeli missile, resulting in the deaths of two ambulance workers, Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, who were sent to rescue Rajab.
According to an investigation from the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Rajab and her relatives were killed in a “planned execution” from the Israeli army, and the Red Crescent paramedics sent to rescue the young girl were killed using a US-made missile.
Israeli troops killed one patient and wounded seven others when they entered Nasser Hospital, according to Dr Khaled Alserr, a surgeon at the hospital in southern Gaza, during what the army described as a limited operation seeking the remaining hostages taken by Hamas.
Israel has long accused Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian structures to shield its fighters. Critics say there is little evidence to support this claim.