Isreali forces targets ‘helpless’ Palestinian children

Ivan Zhakata Herald Correspondent

ISRAEL is deliberately and systematically targeting Palestinian children committing gravest crimes against them including killing, maiming, arrest, detention, and countless untold traumas, Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Zimbabwe Tamer Almassri has said.

This follows the killing of a three-year-old Palestinian child, Mohammed Haitham Ibrahim Tamimi from the village of Nabi Saleh in Palestine.

Ambassador Almassri said Mohammed was shot in the head with live ammunition deliberately fired by Israeli forces which time and again proved their total disregard for Palestinian lives, including of children.

He said Mohammed was the 20th Palestinian child shot and killed by Israel in 2023 and this was another Israeli war crime against defenseless and innocent children with no consequences.

“Israel is not only killing Palestinian children but it is depriving them of their fundamental human rights, hampering their access to education, forcibly displacing them from their homes, detaining and torturing them and denying them their rights to life,” Ambassador Almassri said.

“Israel deprives Palestinian children of their right to development, prosperity and dignity, in flagrant breach of every rule of humanitarian law and every norm of human decency and morality.”

Ambassador Almassri said Israel’s crimes against Palestinian children must not go unchecked as they are further endangering the lives of millions of children.

He said Israel, Israeli political, military officials and settlers must also be held accountable to the full extent of the law.

“We call on the United Nations secretary-general to immediately put Israel, the occupying power and its settler militias on the list of shame of parties that commit grave violations against children. We reiterate our abiding calls on the international community to uphold its obligations and provide the Palestinian people, including children, with international protection as a matter of urgency to save human lives,” Ambassador Almassri said.