“It’s not the same girl.”

September 30 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has denounced this Monday the difficult situation that thousands of children with disabilities have to face in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli attacks began on October 7. “She pulls her hair and bites her nails. She’s not the same girl,” says Juloud, Sara’s mother.

“The continued siege of Gaza, the illegal obstruction of humanitarian aid, the use of famine as a weapon of war, and the damage and destruction of hospitals cause disproportionate harm to children with disabilities,” the NGO notes.

In its latest report titled ‘They Destroyed What We Had Inside’: Children with Disabilities Amid Israel’s Attacks on Gaza, HRW recounts how children who have acquired a disability and those who already had one face a precarious situation. of security and additional difficulties.

“The Israeli army’s illegal attacks are harming and traumatizing Palestinians throughout Gaza, but children with disabilities face increasing threats to their lives and safety,” said HRW head Emina Cerimovic, who has called on Israel’s partners to stop supplying weapons.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported that thousands of children in Gaza have become disabled as a result of Israel’s attacks. Before that date, there were around 98,000 minors who already had one.

HRW has interviewed twenty families of some of these children with disabilities, as well as one of them and a dozen medical and humanitarian workers in order to carry out this latest report.

Among these people is Leila al Kafarna, mother of three children, one of whom lost an arm as a result of an Israeli attack on a market in the Nuseirat displaced persons camp and after they were not warned that it would be bombed.

“The missile hit the supermarket and I lost consciousness… I woke up and I was still holding my son’s hand, so I started running… and then I felt that my son was weightless (…) Then, I looked and I didn’t see my son, and that’s when I discovered that he was only holding his arm,” said this mother.

Ghazal, a 15-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, told the NGO that she lost her assistive device during an Israeli attack. Feeling like an “extra burden” on her family after being unable to find an alternative transportation system, she says she asked them to drop her off. “I gave up and sat on the ground in the middle of the road. I told them to continue without me,” she recalled.

RESTRICTIONS ON HUMANITARIAN AID

The Israeli Government’s blockade of the delivery of humanitarian aid is especially harmful for all these minors due to their particularities. Thus, many of them dependent on a specific diet suffer greatly from the use of hunger as a weapon of war, for example.

All mechanisms of International Law provide for the protection of people with disabilities during armed conflicts. Israel, as a signatory in 2012 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, is obliged to take “all necessary measures” to ensure their protection and safety.

All of these measures include access to the means necessary for their survival, such as food, water, medicines, health care and assistive devices.

PRESSURE ON ISRAEL

The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and other European Union member states, as well as other Israeli allies, should specifically condemn Israel’s abuses that cause particular harm to these children.

Along these lines, these governments should impose sanctions and other measures to pressure the Israeli Government to comply with its international obligations, while also addressing the needs of Palestinian children with disabilities.

Likewise, the NGO also urges Israel to cooperate with its Palestinian and Egyptian authorities to identify children with disabilities who need medical treatment abroad and facilitate their evacuation.

HRW warns Israel’s partner states that if they continue to provide weapons and military assistance to Israel they risk being complicit in war crimes as all this weaponry continues to be used against widely populated spaces, as well as against civilian infrastructure.

“Israeli authorities must take immediate action to put an end to the unjustified deaths, injuries and suffering of children, particularly those with disabilities,” Cerimovic stressed.

“Governments must urgently take measures to pressure Israel to comply with its legal obligations to prevent further atrocities and ensure that the rights of children with disabilities are respected,” he claimed.