Dead Children, Shattered Homes, Unending Darkness

A Palestinian infant, whose name is not known lay lifeless in a shroud, another is lifeless in the arms of his heartbroken parent, yet another has been readied for burial. Children have been a major part of the innocent civilian casualty of the Israel-Hamas war, most of the world leaders are yet to sound a warning or appeal that civilians must not be targeted.

The attacks have continued even as Israel told “all civilians in Gaza City, more than 1 million people, to relocate south within 24 hours,” reported Reuters. The report added that in response, “Mosques called on residents of the Gaza Strip not to leave their homes”.

The people are caught in between, an easy target for the bombs that continue to rain down. They have been told to ‘stay at home’, but the home’s themselves are now reduced to debris, injuring and killing many more.

Human Rights Watch has also accused “Israeli forces of using white phosphorus in military operations in Lebanon and Gaza on October 10 and 11, 2023.” According to HRW “videos show multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.”

White phosphorus, the rights body explained “has the potential to cause civilian harm due to the severe burns it causes and its lingering long-term effects on survivors. Its use in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law.”

According to Reuters, the Israeli military has dismissed the claims and stated “The current accusation made against the IDF (Israel Defence Force) regarding the use of white phosphorus in Gaza is unequivocally false.”

As Western media reportage is sparse on the massive destruction still being unleashed in Gaza, social media has once again become the window of the war. The civilised world is watching in horror as chilling photographs and videos of the dead and injured, the homeless and those mourning, and those trying to help others survive another day.

Here are some selected images, and a trigger warning that viewing them can cause distress. These images, gathered from public social media shared by organisations, and concerned world citizens, are the tip of the violent iceberg that is war.

 According a report in Al Jazeera, “Gaza has been cut off from the rest of the world by the Israeli military for 16 years, effectively forcing its 2.3 million residents to live in an open-air prison.” It also reported that “the death toll has now surpassed 1,500, with 60 percent of Palestinians killed being women and children, health officials have said. More than 6,000 others have been wounded”.