The Real Reasons Why Children Are Being Targeted in Gaza

The world has seen the images and videos coming out of Gaza. Every single day new footage appears of more and more lifeless children. More than 13,000 children have died. These numbers do not include the missing or the children who are deceased under the rubble. The remaining population left are starving to death in a man-made famine.

During times of war some collateral damage is to be expected, but this conflict is between Hamas and Israel. Or at least that is what Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu want the world to think, so why is it that the only footage and evidence we have of mass casualties are children and babies themselves? We all know that children are not Hamas. To first understand this we must go back to the Viking Age.

(793–1066 CE) was the period when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and they did eventually reached North America. During their raids and conquests, fire was set to villages. Women were raped and enslaved. Unfortunately the majority of the children in the villages were murdered for one reason, and that was to eliminate any future threats. The Vikings knew that revenge fueled attacks by their child victims once they reached adulthood were inevitable.

What we can determine from Israel's actions that have been recorded for the world to see as well as the ruling of the The International Court of Justice this year which stated orders for Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” is that Israel is not focused on Hamas. Israel is focused on raiding and settling on what is left of Palestine. Israel can not complete that plan until every single civilian and future threat to them is exterminated.

Imagine if you were a child in Palestine. Imagine that your home has been bombed. Your school has been bombed. You become injured but cannot go to any hospitals because they too, all have been bombed. You have watched your friends and family, and even your pets die because of a country called Israel. As the smell of decomposition floods your nose while you walk the streets, hungry and thirsty. You realize that there is truly nothing left to live for, except maybe revenge. Israel knows that they are creating a future enemy. Israel knows that those children will forever have a vendetta against them.

Bombing hospitals, neighborhoods, and schools not only causes immediate destruction and loss of life but also has far-reaching consequences that affect entire communities and generations. The impacts are profound and often leave scars that take decades to heal, affecting social, economic, and political stability on a broader scale.

Benjamin Netanyahu knows this. He knows that he will never be able to sleep with both eyes closed again. While his victims suffer, he too suffers in his own way. Paranoia will set in. No matter how many years go by, as long as he breathes he will be haunted by the possibility that the ones who made it out, will come after him next. After all Benjamin Netanyahu put thorns in the children of Palestine before they ever became to bloom.

If the day ever comes when we hear about an assassination on The Prime Minister of Israel, or even a future attack on the country itself, the world will have no reason to be surprised. There are consequences when it comes to stealing land and attacking the people you stole it from. This is something Israel has been attempting to do since the Nakba of 1948.

It is in the best interest of both Palestine and Israel to come to a ceasefire agreement and a two state solution. For the grave currently being dug is large enough for Palestinians and Israelis to both fit into.