Report: Israel killed 313 children in its war on Gaza

The Palestinian center for human rights reported that the last Israeli war on the Gaza Strip was the largest during 42 years of occupation, adding that 1,414 Palestinians including 313 children were killed by Israel during this war.

According to a report issued by the center entitled “The war crimes against children,” 83 percent of those victims killed by the Israeli occupation forces were civilians.

The report touched on the murder of 18-year-old girl called Farah Al-Helo in January 2009 when IOF troops forced her family to leave their house in Al-Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza city, and opened fire on them as they were abandoning the house leading to the death of the little girl with a bullet in her stomach.

It accused Israel of disregarding international humanitarian law, which stipulates the protection of children during armed conflicts, and of not taking appropriate precautions to distinguish between civilians and military targets.

The report said that the IOF troops bombed indiscriminately schools taken as shelters by civilians who had to flee their homes, noting that the Israeli military aggression left psychological impacts on Gaza people especially children, not to mention the large number of physical injuries sustained by thousands of them.

Lawyer Raji Al-Surani, the center”s director, called on the international community to conduct a comprehensive and independent investigation of all documented attacks committed by Israel and to prosecute it for its war crimes in Gaza.