Three months into the ceasefire in Gaza, Israel's attacks have claimed more than 400 lives in the Palestinian territory, including many children, according to figures from the health ministry.
Israel said its attacks – shootings, shelling and air strikes – are directed at Hamas and other militants who pose a threat to its forces, or people acting suspiciously near the “yellow line” that divides the territory into areas of Israeli and Hamas control.
However, about 40 per cent of the 439 people killed in Israeli attacks between the start of the ceasefire on October 10 and January 9 were children, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Mahmoud Bassal, Gaza's Civil Defence spokesman, challenged Israel's justifications for continuing its attacks.
“If Israel were responding to resistance operations, why do we see near-daily killings of civilians, especially children, far from any clashes?” he said.
“Israel claims these are responses to resistance, but that is a lie. There is no resistance near these areas. Israel manufactures excuses to kill civilians and children.”
Families living near the yellow line remain under threat, while those far from it have not been spared.
The most recent case was on January 8 in the Falluja area of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, in which a young girl, Hamsa Houso, was killed about a kilometre from the yellow line
Her uncle, Mohammad Houso, said the family was woken by screaming.
“I ran downstairs and found Hamsa, only 12 years old, shot in the head,” he told The National.
Moments earlier, Israeli forces had fired three shells into the area, followed by heavy gunfire from armoured vehicles and quadcopter drones.
“The bullet hit her directly. This was intentional. Israeli technology is advanced, nothing is random,” Mr Houso said.
He carried Hamsa to the nearest medical point, but the ambulance there was not working. By the time another arrived, 15 minutes later, she was dead.
He said Hamsa loved school and dreamt of becoming “something big”. The family was struggling with the disappearance of her father, Nidal, who had been missing since Israeli forces launched operations in northern Gaza more than a year ago.
“We don’t know if he’s a martyr or a prisoner. We know nothing,” Mr Houso said.
On January 3, Fatima Ma‘rouf, 11, was sitting near her family’s tent in Al Atatra, in the west of Beit Lahia town in northern Gaza, when a quadcopter drone arrived overhead.
“It started dropping small bombs on people,” her grandmother, Amina Ma‘rouf, told The National. “One of them hit Fatima directly and she died instantly.”
Fatima had dreamt of rebuilding her home, which had been destroyed in the war, finishing school, and becoming a science teacher, she said.
Her mother, who was wounded in the attack, remains in intensive care, unaware that her daughter was killed.
“What did this family do? They belong to no faction, no group.” Ms Ma‘rouf said. “Israel claims the war is over, but it continues killing our children openly.
“There is no world in which the killing of a child can be justified. Yet they keep killing ours, and no one stops them.”
