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Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and other officials spoke out on Wednesday about the atrocious conditions endured by children in Gaza, after almost two years of Israeli bombardment.
Children have suffered a particularly acute toll since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023 that launched the war in Gaza. Since beginning its operation in the enclave, Israel has bombed schools, causing most classes to be put on hold, while many young people are dealing with amputations, life-altering injuries and the loss of loved ones.
“Let’s not mince our words. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” Mr Safadi said at an event organised by Jordan, Belgium and the EU on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Unless Israel is held accountable, he continued, “Palestinian children will continue to have their dreams shattered and their future stolen”.
Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot warned that “an entire generation is at risk of being deprived of its childhood, its dignity and its chance to build a future. We need to act now”.
Israel has launched a sweeping air and ground campaign on Gaza city in recent weeks, deepening a humanitarian crisis already described as catastrophic by aid agencies. The offensive, aimed at dismantling Hamas, has left large areas of the enclave in ruins.
“A child has been killed on average every hour for almost two years in Gaza, the lucky children sleep in tents” while schools “have become sites of horror, depriving over 700,000 children of their right to education”, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said during the event, which was moderated by The National.
He slammed impunity in the face of the “horror” unfolding in Gaza, calling on those with power to stop the “21st-century atrocity”.
“So we gather once again to share our testimony and our shame, to try to find words to convey the horror … to repeat that something must be done and, I fear, to accept that nothing will,” Mr Fletcher said.
A panel of UN-backed experts this month accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, a charge the country's government dismissed as “distorted and false”.
Conditions in the enclave have sharply deteriorated, with a UN-backed body last month formally declaring famine in parts of Gaza.
UN officials warn that hunger, displacement and the collapse of health services are compounding the toll of almost two years of war.
“We are told again and again that this is a price a population somehow has to pay for war,” Mr Fletcher said.
“Lawyers and historians will argue long and hard what to call this, and despite bans on international journalists, they will have immense amounts of evidence to consider justice.”
Israel maintains that its campaign is necessary to secure its borders and eliminate Hamas, even as international criticism mounts over the civilian cost.
The panel's findings, paired with growing alarm among Israel's allies, highlight the widening gap between the country's military objectives and global concern over the humanitarian fallout.
