[News] Eyes forced shut, hospital crammed: Children fill Rafah graveyards

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/eyes-forced-shut--hospital-crammed--children-fill-rafah-grav>
Eyes forced shut, hospital crammed: Children fill Rafah graveyards
Al Mayadeen English
May 1, 2024
------------------------------

James Elder, the UNICEF's global spokesperson, reports that the European
Hospital in Rafah holds scores of severely wounded dying children.
[image: 190af30a-5fd4-49d5-a7d6-62f089f90f7f.png]

   - Palestinian children stand amid the debris of a house destroyed by
   overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. (
   *AFP*)

UNICEF's global spokesperson James Elder
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/allowing-gaza-children-s-sacrifice-means-death-of-humanity>
has reported on the many horrors he witnessed in Rafah
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-forces-behind-displacing-palestinian-communities--hr>,
warning that a potential invasion would be "catastrophic".

During three visits to the European Hospital's ICU in Rafah, Gaza, Elder
recalls how he observed many youngsters lying on the same bed
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/health/gaza-s-resilient-children--coping-with-trauma-amid-genocide>
after a bomb tore their house. Despite the physicians' best attempts, they
all died.

Elder recalls how mere weeks earlier, the world was outraged at the killing
of seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/un-team-receives-bodies-of-wck-foreign-aid-staffers-killed-b>
and a week later, a UNICEF van was attacked, as it attempted to deliver
much-needed aid.

He questions whether things could get any worse in Rafah from "the looming
famine to soaring death tolls" and notes that it seems that in Gaza things
can always get worse
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-can-no-longer-count-dead-bodies--wsj>,
citing the "breaking of humanity's darkest records."

Elder emphasizes that Rafah would completely implode if attacked
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/day-208--34-568-killed--77-765-injured-in-gaza>,
as there are over 1.4 million residents residing there in deplorable
conditions. "There is simply nowhere left to go in Gaza," he says, citing
the severe shortage of water for drinking and sanitation
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-on-the-brink-of-famine--un-backed-report-warns>
and the one shared toilet per 850 people.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics on Thursday,
before the Israeli aggression began, Rafah had a population density of
4,360 people per square kilometer
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/population-density-in-rafah-at-17-500-individuals-per-square>,
whereas now it has reached 17,500 individuals per square kilometer.
The city of children

The spokesperson details that the city is a haven for young children
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/health/gaza-s-resilient-children--coping-with-trauma-amid-genocide>,
in addition to housing Gaza's largest remaining hospital, the European
Hospital, which is now more crucial than ever after Gaza's health system
has been destroyed.

Since the Israeli aggression began in Gaza more than 6 months ago, Israeli
occupation forces (IOF) have destroyed hospitals, bombed ambulances
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/dozens-killed--injured-as--israel--bombed-rafah-bound-ambula>,
and killed or detained hundreds of healthcare workers
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us--uk-doctors-relay-israeli-atrocities-in-gaza-to-washingto>
.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health Tlaleng Mofokeng announced
last week that at least 350 healthcare workers have been killed
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/libya-preparing-to-launch-medical-relief-convoy-to-gaza>
and 520 others have been injured in Gaza since October 7
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israeli-forces-killed-over-360-gaza-health-workers-since-oct>
.

According to the UN special rapporteur, many teenagers would volunteer in
Gaza's hospitals to help medical workers deal with the vast number of those
injured and killed, but they have not been listed among the casualties
since they weren't officially registered as medical workers.

"The health system in Gaza
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-nasser-hospital--not-functional-anymore---who-chief>
has been completely obliterated and the right to health has been decimated
at every level. The conditions are incompatible with the realization of
everyone to the highest attainable state of physical and mental health,"
she added.

Elder looks back on how Gaza was called a graveyard for children in October,
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iof-turned-gaza-into-children-s-biggest-graveyard--euro-med>
disclosing that he saw new graveyards in Rafah only last month piled with
the remains of innocent children targeted by Israeli strikes, calling it
the worst devastation he has seen in "20 years with the UN."

In December, Elder made a statement in which he called the attack on Gaza a
"war on children
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/unicef-spokesperson---this-is-a-war-on-children>"
from inside a crowded hospital in Gaza, criticizing the international
community's impotence, saying the "inaction by those with influence is
allowing the killing of children."

The UNICEF spokesperson demanded a humanitarian ceasefire and increased
flow of humanitarian aid and sadly recalled how a woman in Gaza pleaded
with him to urge the world to respond to their plight.

Although he attempted to relieve her of her anxiety, the woman continued to
plead, because, as Elder puts it "she assumed the world did not know what
was happening in Gaza. Because if the world knew, how could they possibly
let this happen?"
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