ISRAEL’S WAR ON GAZA AND THE VIOLATION OF

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

INFORMATION SYSTEMS
MOMEN AHMED FARAG
241017227
 Abstract
The current intensification of Israel’s on-going war on Gaza has killed over
25,000 people in less than four months; half of them children. Nearly
60,000 people have been injured, almost all civilians, and many of them
children (UNICEF). Many more thousands are missing beneath the
rubble caused by the 25,000 tones of explosives that have been
dropped on Gaza since October 7, equivalent to two nuclear bombs.
The IPC has reported that the entire population of 2.2 million people is
facing acute food. In this viewpoint we argue that it is not tenable as
critical childhood studies scholars to remain silent in the face of these
grave and systematic violations of children’s rights due to Israel’s
actions in the occupied Palestinian territories and especially in Gaza. We
argue for an end to the violations of children’s protection in international
law, an immediate ceasefire, the restoration of schools and
hospitals, and immediate provision of humanitarian aid including food,
water and medicine. We urge scholars to use their academic platforms
to vociferously oppose the ongoing murder, disablement and
bereavement of children by Israel, not only in Gaza, but also in the
occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the rest of Palestine-Israel.
The current intensification of Israel’s on-going war on Gaza has killed
over 25,000 people in less than four months; half of them children.
Nearly 60,000 people have been injured, almost all civilians, and
many of them children (UNICEF1). Many more thousands are
missing beneath the rubble caused by the 25,000 tones of explosives
that have been dropped on Gaza since October 7,equivalent to two
nuclear bombs. The IPC has reported that the entire population of 2.2
million people is facing acute food insecurity and that this ‘is the
highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that
the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country’.
One in four households are facing ‘catastrophic conditions’ including
starvation.2 All under-fives in Gaza, 335,000 children, are now at high
risk of ‘severe malnutrition and preventable death’.3 We write this
viewpoint because it is not tenable as critical childhood studies
scholars to remain silent in the face of these grave and systematic
violations of children’s rights due to Israel’s actions in the occupied
Palestinian territories and especially in Gaza. The violence,
destruction, starvation and dispossession that children in Gaza are
suffering in the current moment is almost impossible to comprehend.
It is precisely because of the vulnerability of children to trauma,
physical emotional, that children have special protections in
international law. These protections are being violated on an daily
basis by Israel’s actions in Gaza. Not only does the Israeli war on
Gaza violate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, but also
the following aspects of international law4 that relate directly to the
rights of children:
• The 4th Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians during
war and its additional protocols which provide for the care and
protection of children including their rights to ‘their cultural
environment, their education, and the exercise of their religion
(GCIV Arts. 24, 50)’ and specifies that
o Children shall be the object of special respect and shall be
protected against any form of indecent assault. The parties to
 the conflict must provide them with the care and aid they
require,
whether because of their age or for any other reason (API Art.
77.1). Pregnant women and newborn babies come under the
category of ‘wounded persons’ and hence benefit from the same
protection provided for the wounded and sick under
humanitarian law (API Art. 8).
o In the distribution of relief supplies, priority shall be given to
persons who must be accorded privileged treatment or special
protection, such as children, expectant mothers, maternity
cases, and nursing mothers (GCIV Arts. 38.5, 50; API Art.
70.1).
o In besieged areas or occupied territories, the States party to the
Conventions must permit the free passage of all supplies of
essential foodstuffs, clothing, and tonics intended for children
under fifteen and expectant and nursing mothers (GCIV Art.
23).’ 5

• Three of the UN’s ‘six grave violations’ (killing and

maiming; attacks on schools and hospitals;and the denial of
humanitarian access).
• The destruction of schools also violates interlinked rights
conferred by the UNCRC: The right to
relax and play (Article 31); the right to freedom of expression
(Article 13); the right to be safe
from violence (Article 19) and the right to education (Article
28).

In addition to the direct impact of the military campaign against

Gazans and in violation of the above protections, Israel has also
denied entry into Gaza of food and medicine and has destroyed
hospitals and disrupted water and electricity supply, causing
death through starvation and disease. The current blockade is an
intensification of Israel’s restriction of food and medicine into
Gaza which has been in place since 2007.6 Education
infrastructure has also been targeted: nine in every ten schools
have been significantly damaged7 and the last university in
Gaza was destroyed by the Israeli army on January 17, 2024.
Most of the population has been displaced and seen their homes
razed and are now living in tents or in the open air.
Many governments have condemned this war. At the UNGA on
27 October 2023 a resolution calling for ‘an immediate and
sustained humanitarian truce and cessation of hostilities’ 8 was
adopted by a vote of 121 states to 14, with 44 abstentions.
Bolivia has severed diplomatic ties with Israel, Chile and
Mexico have requested the ICC investigate possible war crimes
committed by Israel, and several other countries have recalled
their ambassadors. Spain’s Prime Minister has consistently
called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Most
significantly, South Africa took a case to the International Court
of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide, citing many of the
Israeli government’s own pronouncements in support of their
case. The ICJ ruled on January 26, 2024 that it is ‘plausible’
that Palestinians are at risk of genocide through Israel’s actions
in Gaza and that it must report to the Court within one month to
explain how it is abiding by the court’s decisions.9
Yet, many other governments have refused to call for a
ceasefire or to condemn Israel. The UK has actively supported
Israel with access to British bases in Cyprus. A coalition of the
USA, UK, Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands have
bombed Yemen in an attempt to force the Houthis to end their
blockade of ships carrying Israeli cargo in the Red Sea.10
Germany is supporting Israel at the ICJ and has banned the use
of the word ‘genocide’ in relation to Israel, calling this
charge ‘antisemitic’. The USA continues to supply Israel with
military aid of USD 14.3 billion (reference?) and has authorised
the emergency sale of USD 147.5 million of military equipment
to continue its genocidal war, bypassing Congress in the
process.
The Israeli government is often defended with the argument
that their actions are self-defence in response to the Hamas
incursion into Israel on October 7. On that day Hamas took
approximately 240 hostages and murdered 695 civilians
including 39 children.11 It should not need to be said that we
are against the killing or kidnapping of civilians, but, for the
record, we do not defend civilians being killed in conflicts or
captured. That said, we must note that the claim that the war on
Gaza began on October 8 is simply not true. In the first place, it
has to be acknowledged that the establishment of the 1949
Armistice lines, in which Europe played a pivotal role, involved
the catastrophe/ Nakba of the forced expulsion of 750,000
Palestinians and the murder of 15,000 Palestinians between
1947 and May 1949 by the Zionist military forces.12
Furthermore, what has happened since 8 October is an
intensification of Israel’s occupation of three proto self-
governing areas –East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank –
that were established by the Oslo Accords in 1995. A key
element of the Oslo Accords, signed by Israeli and Palestinian
representatives, was the withdrawal of Israeli forces from these
territories; that withdrawal never happened. Since the Oslo
Accords were signed Israel has killed about 6,000 Palestinians,
mostly in assaults on Gaza; the longest for 50 days in 2014. In
the West Bank and East Jerusalem 203 Palestinians were killed
in 2023 and an average of 1,130 were injured every month of
2023.13 While the deaths of Israelis and internationals on
7October has made news around the world, the deaths and
suffering of Palestinians in Gaza goes largely unnoticed by
much of the mainstream media, and has done for many years.
Finally, it must be recognised that the indiscriminate bombing
of a civilian population that has led to the deaths of over 25,000
people in the first 100 days of war is a form of collective
punishment of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state

Conclusion:
Opposing the complicity of their governments in Israel’s war,
hundreds of thousands of people around the world have
mobilised in support of Palestine 14 and over 2,400 childhood
studies scholars and students have signed a statement
demanding a ceasefire.15 A small but significant opposition to
the war has been slowly building in Israel, including an anti-
war demonstration held on January 21, 2024.16
How should children’s geographers respond to these events?
Our view is that, at a minimum we must demand an immediate
ceasefire. To stay silent in the face of the mass murder and
disablement of children is to be complicit. As academics, we
should not allow ourselves to be silenced by claims that it is
‘complicated’ or that analysis of the war, its causes and impacts
require ‘nuance’ or that unless Israel or Palestine are the focus
of our research we are not ‘qualified’ to speak out on an
academic platform. We also have a crucial role to play in
fostering spaces for analysis and critique, with and for
colleagues, students and children. We must resist the ongoing
attempts to prevent pro-Palestinian voices being heard in
universities and schools.17 While speaking out will not end this
conflict, adding to the weight of global public opinion may
persuade the USA to cease its unconditional support for Israel’s
actions and to stop funding its destructive power. In the past, it
has been precisely the USA’s fear about the crushing effect of
its violence on its (self-ascribed) reputation as the benign
hegemon of the international order that finally turned the tide of
foreign (Vietnam) and domestic policy (civil rights movement).
While the USA is not the only country who are complicit in
Israel’s genocidal actions, they play a decisive role. Without the
USA’s financial support and military aid Israel could not
continue this war. As mentioned above, the USA provides more
financial and military support to Israel than any other state. The
USA remains a global hegemon. It exercised its right of veto to
block a vote for a humanitarian ceasefire at the UN Security
Council emergency meeting on December 8, 2023.18 If they
had not done so, there would have been a ceasefire.
We recognise that childhood studies scholars differ on what
they consider possible solutions to ensuring the freedom and
equality of Palestinians. However, regardless of what one thinks
about the future of Palestine and Israel, it is incumbent on all
childhood studies scholars to support an end to the violations of
children’s protection in international law including an
immediate ceasefire, the restoration of schools and hospitals,
and immediate provision of humanitarian aid including food,
water and medicine. We urge scholars to use their academic
platforms to vociferously oppose the ongoing murder,
disablement and bereavement of children by Israel, not only in
Gaza, but also in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and
the rest of Palestine-Israel.

References:
1. [Link]
security-data-reveals-true-picture-of-oct-7-

deaths

2. [Link]
villages-destroyed-by-israel-in-1948
3. [Link]
names-palestinians-killed-by-israel-inthe-occupied-west-bank-2
4. [Link]
demonstrations-around-the-world-as-gaza-warnears-100-days