How can anyone justify military snipers deliberately shooting young children in the head and chest?
Yet that’s what The New York Times reported in a lengthy article on October 9. It cites 65 American doctors, nurses and paramedics who volunteered their services in war-torn Gaza. It appears to be a Times exclusive story, so I suspect few people have seen or heard of it.
The Times online story included copies of X-rays and MRIs of children with single bullets in their heads and chests. The targeted children were aged 18 months to 12 years.
Is this a genocide or ethnic cleansing technique planned by some members of the Israeli military?
I thought their war crimes were about as bad as they could get, bombing hospitals, schools, medical aid vehicles and multi-story residential buildings. None should have been considered military targets despite claims that Hamas terrorists were hiding inside.
Here are some of the reports provided to the Times after the paper contacted the 65 medical staff, including 44 who said they “saw several cases of children who had been shot in the head or chest in Gaza.”
A doctor from Pittsburgh, PA, said, “One night in the emergency room, over the course of four hours, I saw six children between the ages of 5 and 12, all with single gunshot wounds to the skull.”
The Times story begins with a guest essay by Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who served as a trauma surgeon in Gaza from 25 March to 8 April.
He wrote, “I’ve volunteered in Ukraine and Haiti, and I grew up in Flint, Mich. But of the many things that stood out about working in a hospital in Gaza, one stuck out to me: Almost every day I was there, I saw another little kid that had been shot in the head or the chest, pretty much all of them died. Thirteen in all.
“At the time I assumed this must be the work of a particularly sadistic soldier nearby. But after returning home, I met an emergency doctor who had worked at another hospital in Gaza two months before me. I couldn’t believe the number of kids I saw shot in the head,” I told him.
“To my surprise, he replied, ‘Yes, me too. Every single day.’ “
A surgeon from Virginia told the Times: “Our team took care of about four or five children, ages 5 to 8, who were all shot with single shots to the head. They all met in the emergency room at the same time. They all died.”
A Costa Mesa emergency physician said, “I saw an 18-month-old little girl with a gunshot wound to the head.”
And an orthopedic surgeon in Dallas, Texas, said, “One day while I was in the emergency room, I saw a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old, each with a single bullet hole in the head. When asked what happened, their father said and brother that they had heard that Israel withdrew from Khan Younis. So they returned to see if there was anything left of their house. There was, they said, a sniper waiting, who shot both of them children.”
Can you imagine dealing with what that father experienced?
63 of the medical volunteers also noted that they observed severe malnutrition in patients, in Palestinian doctors and in the general population. An anesthesiologist from Toledo, Ohio, said: “Malnutrition was widespread. It was common to see patients reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps with skeletal features.”
And 52 of the 65 cited almost universal psychiatric distress in young children, including some who were suicidal or said they wished they were dead.
An emergency nurse from Texas said, “Many children would not speak for days, even with their family at the bedside. One child would not accept a gift I brought of a small plastic car because she would not touch or speak to anyone but his father.”
An orthopedic and hand surgeon from Rocky Mount, NC, reported that many of the children “said they wished the next bomb would just hit them and end their torture.”
This is what happens when the corrupt and evil madman Benjamin Netanyahu and his hardcore followers limit outside humanitarian aid to trickle down.
And now the Associated Press reports that he is threatening to cut off all aid to northern Gaza in an effort to starve out Hamas militants. The plan, if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are unwilling or unable to leave their homes.
Doesn’t that plan reek of something the Nazis would do?
But if any of you are thinking of labeling me as anti-Semitic or pro-Palestinian, I am neither. My parents repeatedly drummed into my head the importance of respect and tolerance for all people, regardless of nationality, race or creed. And throughout my adult life I have supported an independent and thriving Israel.
The October attack on Israelis a year ago was abhorrent. But now Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces are murdering tens of thousands more while undermining all efforts at a ceasefire and negotiations.
The only thing I have against Israelis is their continued failure to remove Netanyahu and his cronies from their leadership filled with barbaric and inhumane treatment of a people whose ancestors have lived in this area for thousands of years.
It is time for the United States to make some irrevocable ultimatums about our full support for Israel.