AT LEAST 400 Palestinian men, women, and children were killed in the devastating bombing strike at Al-Alhi Baptist Hospital in Gaza on Oct. 18. Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) strongly condemns the killing of civilians, families, especially children, and calls for an immediate pull out of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and to stop the genocide and the bombardment of communities including the innocent children.
This, among many of the recent horrifying series of events in Gaza, linked with the sustained 76 years of Palestinian displacement and historical oppression, is a clear mass human rights violation.
Children are violently killed; meanwhile surviving children are gravely injured, orphaned, deprived of basic needs, disrupted education, and struggling with severe psychological trauma. In the Philippine context, Filipino children who are victims of extrajudicial killings, red tagging, displacement, and other human rights violations mirror similar experiences, which no child should ever experience.
While both the IDF and the Islamic Jihad movement point to each other as to who should be held accountable for the bombing, with Israel resorting to releasing “captured audio conversation” as “evidence” but whose authenticity cannot be verified, the US President, Joe Biden, and its National Security Council (US-NSC) side with Israel and assess that the IDF are “not responsible” for the blast.
According to Defense for Children International (DCI) Palestine, more than 1,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, after six major military attacks in Gaza, not counting the death toll in the recent hospital bombing.
No reason or cause can justify these inhumane acts. This is a war crime; a US-backed genocide of Palestinian people, with countless children being victims, carrying the brunt of war for the rest of their lifetime.
This long-running violence and war has trampled the lives of a whole generation — either wiped out or have survived yet severely traumatized.
With these, Children’s Rehabilitation Center calls to end the occupation, stop the genocide and secure the rights and safety of children and their families. We call on every fellow child-rights advocate to stand with Palestinian children and condemn US-backed IDF war crimes. – CHILDREN’S REHABILITATION CENTER, 0 J.Bugallon St., Project 4, Brgy. Bagumbuhay, Quezon City <childrehabphilippines@yahoo.com.ph>
