Terrified by Israeli bombardment on many neighboring homes, a three-year boy entreated to his pregnant mother: “Please mommy, hide me beside the baby in your tummy. I’m afraid of the missiles; they have become so many and everywhere. Hide me mommy please.”
Reportedly, these were the last words of Saher Abu Namoos, uttered before an Israeli drone fired a rocket that ejected Saher’s brain out of his skull while he was clutching his mom.
Saher’s story is one of hundreds of other real tragic stories of Palestinian children killed during the war on Gaza. He is one of these children whose lives were terminated due to Israel’s sophisticated weaponry and monetary suppliers: the USA and EU.
While American taxpayers donate Israel $9.9 million in military aid each day, the EU trades military hardware and technology with Israel are in billions of euros, both imports and export. The UK has £8bn ($13bn) of commercial and military export licences granted to Israel (The Guardian).
Over 50 bloody days of Israeli aggression on Gaza, these weapons, whether donated or sold to the Israeli army, have caused many long term tragedies to thousands of Palestinian families and vulnerable civilians. These American and Euoropean weapons have
- killed 2140 Palestinians, mostly civilians (about 43 Palestinians a day)
- killed 520 children (at least 10 children a day)
- killed about 300 Palestinian women (6 women a day)
- injured 3,312 children (at least 66 women a day)
- injured 2,120 women (at least 40 women a day)
- made about 30% of those injured disabled:
- at least 1000 children disabled (20 children a day)
- at least 700 women disabled (14 women a day)
- created a generation of 400,000 children who require immediate and long-term pyscho-social support because of the enormity of the mental damage suffered. Children’s parents also need some guidance on how to deal with their children.
The ratio of Palestinian women and children killed, injured, or made permanently disabled by the Israeli military policy is extremely high in relation to the population of Gaza: 1.8 million.
For the sake of argument and to ease calculation, it is assumed that Gaza has 2 million, which means the number of those victims mentioned above is halved for each million. Here is a list of real Palestinian victims per each million.
- About 260 Palestinian children killed out of each million
- About 150 Palestinian women killed out of each million
- About 1650 Palestinian children injured out of each million
- About 1060 Palestinian women injured out of each million
- About 500 Palestinian children have become disabled out of each million
- About 320 Palestinian women have become disabled out of each million
I focus on women and children not to argue that they are the only civilian victims. But because they highlight the numbers of civilians killed and injured in the Israeli attacks and because their numbers and ratios are so high in comparison to the figures on women and children killed in other wars.
The ratio of these weapons’ victims is incredibly shocking. No country, no people, no nation would ever tolerate, accept or even imagine such a ratio in the worst scenario of wars in modern times.
This proportional ratio of victimized women and children is more shocking when a hypothetical proportional comparison is applied to the population of four sample countries that arm the occupier of the Palestinian Territories: USA, UK, Germany and France.
The table below illustrates the madness of this Israeli aggression and excessive bombs and fire used against women and children.
Table: Proportion of the Palestinians killed and injured
|
Country |
Population |
Children |
Women |
||||
|
Killed |
Injured |
Disabled |
killed |
Injured |
Disabled |
||
|
Gaza-Palestine |
2m |
521 |
3,312 |
1,000 |
297 |
2,120 |
640 |
|
Israel |
8m |
2080 |
13,200 |
4,000 |
1,200 |
8,480 |
2,560 |
|
USA |
318m |
82, 680 |
524,700 |
159,00 |
47,700 |
337,080 |
101,760 |
|
UK |
63m |
16,380 |
103,950 |
31,500 |
9,450 |
66,780 |
20,160 |
|
Germany |
83m |
21,580 |
136,950 |
41,500 |
12,450 |
87,980 |
26,560 |
|
France |
66m |
17,160 |
109,000 |
33,000 |
9,900 |
69,960 |
21.120 |
Reflection on these dreadful figures raises many ethical and legal questions in the mind of every peace-loving human who loves women and children:
- How would these countries, governments, and legislators react to such mass killing of women and children inside their houses in their homeland?
- Imagine: how would Israel, America and the West react if more than 2000 Israeli children and 1200 women (again, proportionally) were killed by Palestinian rockets?
- When will the American and European governments allow us to celebrate our independence and freedom?
- How many Palestinians will be killed in the way Saher was killed by American and European weapons?
- After violating all ethics, moralities, and human values, can the Israeli army be called “the most moral army in the world” as claimed repeatedly by many senior Israeli politicians including Benjamin Prime Minister Netanyahu, Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak; current Finance Minister Yair Lapid?
The answer to the last question is given by a report in Haaretz after the war on Gaza in 2009 which claimed the lives of less children and women. The report is entitled: IDF ceased long ago being ‘most moral army in the world’ – The IDF knew very well what its soldiers did in Gaza and will not seriously investigate anything. The report states:
What shock, what consternation. Haaretz revealed grave accounts by officers and soldiers describing the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians during the war in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman was quick to respond that the IDF had no prior or supporting information about the events in question, the defense minister was quick to respond that “the IDF is the most moral army in the world,” and the military advocate general said the IDF would investigate.
All these propagandistic and ridiculous responses are meant not only to deceive the public, but also to offer shameless lies. The IDF knew very well what its soldiers did in Gaza. It has long ceased to be the most moral army in the world. Far from it – it will not seriously investigate anything.
This claim of morality has no evidence except in the minds of the generals and politicians who tried their best to plant it in the mind of Israelis and others to counter the killing and destructive reality of the Israeli Army.
Dr. Al- Masri.
Yours is a very important article– direct, factual and poses exactly the right questions. Over and over we heard US, UK and Israel exclaim that Israel has the “right to self defense”. Self defense had NOTHING to do with this massacre. Over and over we heard that they do not target civilians and that they are so very moral– the facts prove otherwise. Over and over, the sadistic Mark Regev claimed that no country in the world would accept having rockets fired at them and leaders in the US repeated his tripe! But apparently they can accept the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. Israeli lies were never countered by any US/EU government official– and they still aren’t. The blame, according to Israel/ US/EU, was assigned to the victims of their combined weaponry and propaganda– the people of Palestine. There are quite a few reports that banned weapons were used by Israel in Gaza. Israel has prevented groups from entering Gaza to investigate. Thankfully this time, many witnessed the actions of the IOF and it is recorded. I pray that their impunity ends once and for all.
Saher’s (rip) entreaty to his mother : “Please mommy, hide me beside the baby in your tummy. I’m afraid of the missiles; they have become so many and everywhere. Hide me mommy please.” is searingly difficult to read and grasp. I can only imagine every mommy and daddy wanting to do the same for their babies…hide them from such evil and danger. There was nowhere safe run to, nowhere to hide, many people were blocked from leaving & living with ANY security, and they still are.
Read, tears falling, heart breaking, soul ripped apart. And yes same feeling when I have read accounts of Israeli children being killed. However it is the violent, purposeful and extremely disproportionate amount of innocent Palestinians who have and continue to be so willfully massacred by the IDF.
All of us who have followed, protested, lobbied our Reps etc etc about this issue for decades are well aware that the MSM’s coverage of this issue shifted during the latest massacre in the Gaza. Every time I heard a report etc I so wanted the Joy Reid’s. Chris Hayes, Melissa Harris Perry to show charts that would starkly point out the reality of the proportions and compare what it would look like if Israeli’s, U.S. citizens etc faced the same kind of aggressor and suffer the same kind of massacre given the size of the population. Thank you. Will share far and wide.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid only one I hear bringing up the state of Gaza now. The slaughtered, the injured, the displaced, the trauma (8 year old Palestinian children having been through 3 wars in their short life times). Not much out of any other media outlet. You know the Al Sharpton’s, Ed, Wolf Blitzer, Andrea Mitchell, Rachel Maddow’s, Chris Matthew’s of the MSM. Stone cold cowardly silence
Just a statistical comment: the proportion of young people in Gaza, children included, is many times higher that of the West. The median age in Gaza is 18, compared to 40 in Europe, and 43.5% of the population in Gaza is under 14 (data from Index Mundi). This would necessarily get reflected in casualties.
Nazmi,
This would be a very useful article and I would like to cite it in my own blog, but you give no source or authority for your numbers that I can see. This would be a far, far more powerful piece if we could see the source of your data.
You purport to give accurate figures, but they are not consistent with other sources. For instance, you claim 2140 total deaths — certainly an appalling figure. But Kate’s figure in her Sep06 MW article says 2154.
My point is not to dispute the numbers but to kevetch about unsourced “facts” — particularly facts tabularized to make them look official and easier to sell.
Where do these numbers come from? is a question any skeptical reader should ask.
BTW, I caught the subtle joke in the headline, and I love it: “conscience of weapons-suppliers.” LOL
If weapons suppliers had a conscience, the serial genocide in Palestine would not be happening and the body counts in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Nigeria, . . . (name it) . . . would be near to nil. There are millions of Americans whose paychecks come from the blood of innocent people killed by American-made weapons.
The BDS folks should be going rabid over McDonnell Douglas/Boeing, Raytheon, Colt, . . . A lot of the millions of American $$ per day to GoI you allude to comes right back into the pockets of union members (and politicians, of course) all across America.
The “conscience of weapons-suppliers” must be a mythical construct created in the heart of Mordor.