A War on Gaza’s Future? Israeli Assault Leaves 500 Kids Dead, 3,000 Injured, 373,000 Traumatized

[Jefferson23]

8/21/2014

As the Israeli offensive in Gaza resumes, we look at the impact the military campaign has had on the children of Gaza. More than 467 Palestinian children have died since July. That is more than the combined number of child fatalities in the two previous conflicts in Gaza. According to the World Health Organization, more than 3,000 children have been injured, of which an estimated 1,000 will suffer from a lifelong disability. The United Nations estimates at least 373,000 children require direct and specialized psychosocial support. And, based on the total number of adults killed, there may be up to 1,500 children orphaned. Gazan children’s right to an education has also been severely compromised with at least 25 schools reportedly damaged so severely that they can no longer be used. We speak to Pernille Ironside, chief of UNICEF’s Gaza field office.

"There isn’t a single family in Gaza who hasn’t experienced personally death, injury, the loss of their home, extensive damage, displacement," Ironside says. "The psychological toll that has on a people, it just cannot be overestimated, and especially on children."

Transcript:snip* For more, we spend the remainder of the hour with Pernille Ironside, chief of UNICEF’s Gaza field office, just here in New York for a few days before returning to Gaza.

Pernille, welcome to Democracy Now!

PERNILLE IRONSIDE: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the situation there. You were there through the entire assault until now.

PERNILLE IRONSIDE: Yes. Today, the future of Palestinian children in Gaza is extraordinarily bleak. The entire population has experienced a deep form of trauma, and there isn’t a single family in Gaza who hasn’t experienced personally death, injury, the loss of their home, extensive damage, displacement. The psychological toll that has on a people, it just cannot be overestimated, and especially on children. I’ve met children who have experienced extraordinary wounds, who have watched as family members were dismembered before their eyes, obliterated. You know, shortly after that terrible incident on the beach, the following day I met with the surviving three—

AMY GOODMAN: The beach being?

PERNILLE IRONSIDE: The Gaza City beach in Gaza.

in full: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/21/a_war_on_gazas_future_israeli

[4now]

1. Today I saw a picture of a weeping Palestinian man holding a plastic carrier bag of meat.

"Today I saw a picture of a weeping Palestinian man holding a plastic carrier bag of meat. It was his son. He’d been shredded (the hospital’s word) by an Israeli missile attack – apparently using their fab new weapon, fléchette bombs. You probably know what those are – hundreds of small steel darts packed around explosive which tear the flesh off humans. The boy was Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra. He was four years old.
I suddenly found myself thinking that it could have been one of my kids in that bag, and that thought upset me more than anything has for a long time"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025353523

[Jefferson23]

4. Thank you for that post. n/t

[oberliner]

2. Why does the headline say 500 but the lead paragraph say "more than 467" ?

First of all "more than 467" is sort of an odd descriptor. 467 is a pretty specific number. Why more than 467?

Secondly, why would they run a headline with such an inflated figure that is contradicted in the first paragraph of the piece?

Seems easy enough to stick the words "close to" or "almost" in there.

[azurnoir]

3. quite simple bodies are still being dug out of the rubble and IDF strikes are on going

so the death toll is still going up

[oberliner]

5. But the headline says 500

Is it just based on the assumption that the number will eventually total 500 so that was what was chosen for the headline (rather than the 467 number chosen for the first paragraph)? That seems a tad disingenuous.

[azurnoir]

9. actually it says "more than 467" in that statement

and there were more children killed today and that IMO is far more concerning than exact numbers

[oberliner]

11. "Israeli Assault Leaves 500 Kids Dead"

That's in the headline. Is that a factual statement or not?

[azurnoir]

13. unless there's a complete body count somewhere and the bombing stops immediately

we really do not know, but at least we've established our respective priorities it seems

[4now]

7. It is difficult to keep up with all the civilians that Israel is killing

but you can choose either number that makes you feel better.

[oberliner]

8. The truth is ugly enough without lying

I don't get why they would inflate the number in the headline.

[4now]

10. Quibbling over the exact amount of children Israel has killed

That is an interesting defense of Israel's slaughter of civilians.
Did Israel kill over 500 innocent children or did Israel kill over 467.
Wait until tomorrow the IDF will find many more children to kill.

[oberliner]

12. Wanting journalists to report facts rather than embellishing

All I'm saying is - why create a fictitious number for the headline? That does not speak well to this news source.