Gaza: Children of Misfortune

When the entire planet was going through one more month of pandemic, in mid-May Palestine was being the victim of two strong tragedies, as if that weren’t enough with the Covid-19 pandemic, another crisis blew up its soil under the terror of Israeli missiles.

Shocking images circulated through the media, television networks, and social networks, the catastrophe of the war with buildings collapsed in rubble, dozens of bodies scattered on the floor, bloodied children, and torn families.

Of all this, children have been among the most affected by violence, their lives have taken such a negative turn to the point of once again schools have been closed and homes are lost due to collapsed structures caused by the military conflict dragged through the years.

Many children even before this last stage have had to be treated by psychologists. If it’s difficult for an adult to overcome all the traumas that condition living and witnessing a war, and see death in the eye, what is left for those unlucky little ones.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recently published about another need to provide aid in Gaza and it’s the lack of drinking water due to electricity deficit, which prevents thousands of children from having access to drinking water and basic sanitation.

“Being a child in the Gaza Strip has been extremely difficult, even before the latest escalation. For some, this is the fourth conflict they live. No place in the Gaza Strip is safe for children”, highlighted UNICEF, as well as for any human being.

Israel has little by little devastated the Gaza Strip in the last 13 years, first in 2009, then in 2012, 2014, and now in May 2021. How sad for all that generation that has suffered the misfortunes of attacks and the fury of rockets.

There are children who from birth don’t know if there’s another chapter, or at least a less black day, they have only lived under havoc and discrimination, and when they think they have seen the last fleeting flash as months go by, the earth trembles again.

When will the international community, the United Nations and the great powers give priority to humanitarian and first-order issues like these, when will they mourn the pain of a mother or a child, when will their own children fall bloodied in their arms?

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff