21 Children Have Been Killed in Gaza. Here Are Their Names.
The news: The situation between Israeli and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip is intensifying. As many as 85 civilians have been killed, while hundreds more have been injured from Israeli rockets and air strikes flooding into the small coastal city.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to even discuss the option of a ceasefire. And since the beginning of Israel's missile defense system, Operation Protective Edge, more than 400 rockets have been launched into Israel from Gaza, 76 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
The UN Security Council met Thursday to discuss the crisis unfolding, but "there was little evidence of significant pressure on either the Israeli government or Hamas to end their mutual bombardment," reports the Guardian.
And with no end in sight more civilians will surely be affected, either by being displaced, injured or killed. As the death toll rises, more children's lives are at stake.
Here are the names and ages of the children who have been killed thus far:
Seraj Ayad Abed al-A’al, 8
Mohammed Ayman Ashour, 15
Hussein Yousef Kawareh, 13
Bassim Salim Kawareh, 10
Mousa Habib, 16
Ahmad Na’el Mehdi, 16
Dunia Mehdi Hamad, 16
Amir Areef, 13
Mohammed Malkiyeh, 18 months
Ibrahim Masri, 14
Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra, 4
Nidal Khalaf al-Nawasra, (unreported age)
Ranim Jawde Abdel Ghafour, (unreported age)
Maryam Atieh Muhammad al-Arja, 11
Abdullah Ramadan Abu Ghazzal, 5
Yasmin Mohammed al-Mutawwaq, 4
*On Thursday morning, a strike killed eight members of the al-Hajj family, including five children, according to reports.
Israel insists that it is "cracking down on the threat posed by the Islamist group Hamas and that it is taking pains to avoid civilian casualties," reports the Washington Post. But the Gaza conflict is likely not going to be resolved in the near future. Nonetheless, it is a hard pill to swallow that so many civilian casualties are children whose lives were taken prematurely.
