KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- A year has passed since Israel began its genocide in Gaza.
At the time of writing, Israel has killed at least 41,909 Palestinians in Gaza, and wounded nearly 97,303 people. More than 10,000 Palestinians are estimated to be missing or still buried under the rubble.
Nearly 70 percent of those killed in Gaza are women and children.
Gaza's children are bearing the heaviest toll in this ongoing genocide.
Back in October 2023, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder referred to Gaza as “a graveyard for thousands of children.” The reports from Gaza today tragically confirm his words.
As of October 6, 2024, Gaza’s Ministry of Health has reported that 16,927 children have been killed, including 710 infants under the age of one.
The number of child amputees in Gaza is also rising. Nonprofit Save the Children reports that more than 1,000 children in Gaza have undergone amputations of one or more limbs, with many of these operations performed without pain relief.
Gaza's healthcare system is also rapidly collapsing.
Of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, only 17 are partially functioning, while the rest are not operational. Medical personnel have also become targets in this genocide, with 986 confirmed dead.
Palestinian journalists in Gaza have paid a heavy price for their reporting on the genocide. The war has so far claimed the lives of 175 journalists.
The dignity Gazans weren't afforded in life was also absent in death. According to Gaza's Government Media Office, Israel has destroyed eight out of 60 cemeteries across the Gaza Strip, with another 11 partially destroyed.
Education in Gaza has been devastated by the war, leading many to refer to the situation as 'scholasticide.'
First coined by Professor Karma Nabulsi during Israel’s 2009 war on Gaza (Operation Cast Lead), 'scholasticide' refers to “the systematic destruction of Palestinian education by Israel to counter a tradition of Palestinian learning.”
Today, 625,000 students in Gaza have no access to formal education, and 493 out of 564 schools either need full reconstruction or major repairs. All 12 universities in Gaza have also been destroyed.
-- BERNAMA
