DaysofPal- Foreign doctors who recently worked in Gaza have stated that Israeli forces are systematically targeting children, describing a consistent pattern of fatal gunshot wounds to the head and chest in patients under 15 years old.
An investigation published Saturday by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant interviewed 15 international doctors, who were among the last foreign eyewitnesses in Gaza.
They said they treated at least 114 children with such wounds, most of whom did not survive.
According to the doctors, Israeli snipers and drones were responsible for the killings.
Former Dutch army commander Mart de Kruif stated that the consistency of the injuries makes accidental hits “almost impossible.”
American trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, who worked at Gaza’s European Hospital in March 2024, recalled treating four boys with head wounds in just 48 hours.
“I thought: what the hell? How is it possible?” he said, adding that in the following two weeks, he treated nine more children with identical injuries.
Emergency surgeon Mimi Syed described intubating a four-year-old girl who had been shot in a designated humanitarian zone, using a smuggled laryngoscope to keep her alive.
She later documented the bullet lodged in the girl’s head.
Other doctors reported injuries caused by fragmentation weapons, with cube-shaped tungsten fragments tearing through organs and blood vessels, often leading to fatal bleeding or amputations.
Weapons experts confirmed the wounds were consistent with Israeli-made munitions.
Medical teams described operating in unbearable conditions, sweltering heat, the stench of sewage and explosives, and scarce or broken equipment, while mass casualty events occurred daily.
With children making up more than 40% of Gaza’s population, hospitals were overwhelmed with cases of shrapnel in the brain, bullets in the chest, and limbs destroyed by blasts. Some children were labeled WCNSF, Wounded Child, No Surviving Family.
British surgeon Goher Rahbour said he noticed another disturbing trend: targeted injuries appeared to shift by the day, one day to the head or chest, the next to the abdomen or limbs, suggesting a deliberate and coordinated method of attack.
Doctors from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands emphasized the risks of speaking out, as Israel frequently blocks re-entry to those who testify. Still, they said their duty was both to save lives and to bear witness to the truth.
“Being silent is not an option,” said Dr. Sidhwa.
Their testimonies portray a grim picture of deliberate child targeting, the collapse of Gaza’s health system, and the human toll of what they called an ongoing genocide.
Since the war began, more than 64,800 Palestinians have been killed and 164,000 wounded, the majority of them women and children.
Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=67511
