Israeli ground offensive may cause ‘massive’ spike in Gaza child casualties: Human Rights Watch

By Rabia Ali

ISTANBUL (AA) — Amid reports of Israeli plans for a ground operation into Gaza, the Human Rights Watch fears that such an assault could result in a “massive increase” in killings of children.

“It’s hard to imagine that you wouldn’t see an increase, a massive increase in the deaths of children if there’s a ground operation,” the associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch, Bill Van Esveld, told Anadolu in a video interview.

The latest escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has so far claimed the lives of over 1,000 Palestinian children. An average 100 children have been killed every day since the conflict began on Oct. 7, according to the HRW.

Besides the ongoing intense airstrikes and shelling, a feared ground operation into the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip would involve a lot more Israeli troops, tanks, and heavy artillery on the ground, said Esveld.

“You’re going to have more firepower and more Israeli troops who are basically scared for their own safety. In addition to being told to carry out this operation to eliminate Hamas, that’s an extremely deadly combination,” he explained.

This, while Gazans flee for their lives from an unprecedented bombing campaign, especially in the north, in numbers unseen since the expulsion of 1948. “The level of forced displacement, we haven’t seen in Gaza since the Nakba. A million people in a week,” said Esveld.

- How displacement is impacting children?

With about half the population of Gaza under 18, Esveld said that about 500,000 children have been forcibly displaced.

Israel’s warning to residents of northern Gaza to move south is also leading to mass forcible evacuations.

“You’ve got kids walking for hours and hours with no food, no water, to get from one part of this Gaza strip to another,” he said.

Many of those uprooted have been forced to walk as fuel for cars has been cut off, due to a complete blockade that also includes electricity, water, and humanitarian aid.

“If they had gas for the car, they don’t want to be in the car because they’re afraid it’ll be bombed in a convoy. Even if they could drive in the convoy, many of the roads are strewn with rubble.”

Touching on the psychological impact of the devastation, Esveld said children were being traumatized while trying to evacuate under the bombings.

Even if they manage to evacuate safely, they still must find safe shelter, as “many of them have nowhere to go.”

According to Esveld, people are so desperate for a safe place to stay that families are seeking refuge in and around hospitals.

- Spread of diseases

The HRW official fears that apart from the attacks and bombings, disease and infection of untreated wounds also pose a deadly risk to children in Gaza.

An outbreak of smallpox has already started affecting children, he said, citing a doctor on the ground.

The lack of clean drinking water is also another public health concern, with Gaza having scant freshwater sources within its borders. Of those that do exist, more than 90% are contaminated.

“The spread of infectious disease from contaminated water is a massive concern and children are some of the most vulnerable to illness from contaminated water just because their bodies don’t have the resistance,” said Esveld.

- State of hospitals

He painted an alarming picture of the hospitals in Gaza, with hospitals being overcrowded and with no water, electricity, or gas.

Esveld said 21 hospitals in Gaza have been ordered to evacuate, 20 in the north and one in Rafah. “So, those aren’t safe places either,” he said. Israel has designated several “safe” areas in southern Gaza as it has ordered civilians to leave its norther parts amid the heavy bombardment.

“The electricity is not working, the gas is not coming in, and if the child is injured, you know, there isn’t enough medicine.”

In one incident he shared, two seriously wounded children arrived at a hospital in Gaza, but since there was only one operational ventilator, medical staff had to make a choice of which child to save.

They had to watch the other child die due to this lack of equipment.

As for the children who are killed in the strikes, many don’t even have anybody to mourn for their passing amid the onslaught, which has wiped out dozens of entire families in their homes.

- Killing of children no accident

The HRW official feels that the high number of children who have perished in the conflict and the wiping out of entire families is the “predictable outcome of using heavy explosive weapons in populated areas.”

No surprise, this is the “inevitable” result of using such weapons in such a densely populated area as Gaza, he said.

“Inevitably they should know that when more than almost half the population is children, the fact that they’re killing about 100 children a day is not just a surprise. It’s not just an accident. When you can foresee that kind of results, you have to stop.”