Illustration by Paola Bilancieri.

The world has failed the children of Gaza. As the indiscriminate Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacks continue, children are mercilessly killed in alarming numbers. Even though children’s lives and well-being are at stake the world doesn’t seem to care. Today, nowhere in Gaza are children safe. Writing on X, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) stated, “This is a war on children. It is a war on their childhood and their future.”

According to Israel social security data, 695 Israeli civilians were killed during the brutal Hamas’ attack on October 7 2023 including 36 children. In addition, 373 security forces and 71 foreigners were also killed, giving a total of 1,139.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that since October 7, 2023, more than 52,653 Palestinians have been killed, among them over 18,000 children.  The medical magazine the Lancet reports that the true death toll is likely to be much higher if those buried under the destroyed buildings are finally counted. Not only Palestinians are targets of the IDF’s genocidal madness. Nearly 300 UNRWA team members have been killed since October 7, 2023.

However, there are few voices condemning the IDF’s voracious appetite for inflicting pain; almost no governments, no parliaments, no academics, no lawyers, no judges dare to raise their voices. A few students, mostly in the U.S., continue to speak up, and they are punished for exerting their right to protest what has widely been condemned as a genocide. “It is important to call a genocide as a genocide,” said Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in an address to the UN human rights committee.

Since March 2, Israeli authorities had refused to allow any goods or humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, drastically hindering Palestinians’ access to clean water, food, fuel, electricity, medical supplies, and other essential goods and services. As a result, children suffer from serious communicable and preventable conditions like hypothermia, respiratory and intestinal infections, dehydration, and scabies. Only now, Israeli authorities have stated that they will allow some food and aid to enter Gaza.

After months of siege and continuous bombardment children’s mental health is at a breaking point. Over one million children are in need of psychological support. The New York Times reports that some Israeli military officials have privately said that Palestinians in Gaza face widespread starvation unless aid deliveries are restored within weeks. Malnutrition is on the rise. Since the beginning of the year, more than 9,000 children have been admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition. Today, nearly all children in Gaza are at high risk of famine.

Vaccines are becoming scarce and preventable diseases are spreading. Acute diarrhea is widespread and accounts now for one in every four cases of recorded disease in Gaza. Malnutrition is on the rise. Since the beginning of the year, more than 9,000 children have been admitted for treatment of acute malnutrition. Because of insecurity and displacement, hundreds of children don’t receive needed treatment for their diseases.

Thousands of children have sustained serious injuries, including loss of body parts, and have lost their immediate family, homes and schools. I watch on British TV the image of a father holding a bag of flour in his arms holding 20 pieces of his daughter’s body, bombarded to smithereens by Israeli pilots. And his pleading, anguished look seems to say, “Will there ever be an end to this cruelty”? His face is worth a thousand tears.

Jewish voices against the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians are rising. “As a proud Zionist who continues to feel deep solidarity with the people of Israel, including those who wear the Israel Defense Forces uniform, and as I have said on numerous occasions since Oct. 8, I cannot be silent in the face of the immense suffering of the civilians in Gaza, including hundreds of thousands of children,” wrote recently Rick Jacobs, a rabbi and president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest denomination of Judaism in North America.

As Benjamin Netanyahu’s objective is to avoid being prosecuted and punished for his serious crimes the demolition machine continues its destructive path, unimpeded. Netanyahu disregards the growing clamor among Israelis to end a senseless that has cost far too many lives, and has kept the remaining Israeli hostages barely alive, condemned to death in life. On May 5, 2025, Netanyahu called for an “intensive” escalation of the Gaza campaign, as if ravaging Gaza were not enough.

The IDF policy is sadly familiar. Just demonize the enemy, make them small, worthless, killers for killing sake, people without honor, without family values, without pride. They disregard the fact that throughout the Middle East, Palestinians are considered the most educated, entrepreneurial, and cultured among the Arabs.

And the killing continues. Those who call the tragic events in Gaza “The Gaza War” are mislabeling it. Gaza is not a war. Gaza is a massacre.