by Stephen Lendman

A new Defense for Children International-Palestine

(DCIP) report accuses Israel of willfully killing Palestinian children during last summer's Gaza war.

Around 550 children were murdered in cold blood - two-thirds under age 12.

Israel considers all civilians legitimate targets. International law calls killing them a war crime.

Another 3,400 children were injured - over 1,000 maimed for life. They need vital medical care unavailable because of Israel's lawless siege - ongoing aggression by any standard with full US-led Western support.

America and Israel partner in each other's high crimes. They're the world's leading aggressor states - the most egregious human and civil rights abusers. They're mindless of core international laws, norms and standards.

Imagine willfully murdering defenseless/nonthreatening young children at home asleep, at play, going to or from school, or running errands for parents.

Imagine considering them enemies of the state. Imagine using illegal terror weapons against them.

Imagine traumatizing young survivors for life. Imagine Israel outrageously trying to justify the unjustifiable.

Imagine a grieving Palestinian mother explaining her nine-year-old son's "arms and legs were cut off" by an Israeli shell.

"The upper part of his body was separated from his lower body, which was turned into small pieces. I screamed," she said.

She and her son were returning to a UN shelter when disaster struck. Israel murdered dozens of entire families in cold blood.

Accountability for its highest of high crimes remains nowhere in sight.

Cold-blooded murder is longstanding Israeli policy. Viciously persecuting Palestinians continues daily.

Israel is a ruthless terror state. It's just a matter of time before it ravages Gaza again.

DCIP's report said "2014 was a year that brought violence, fear and loss (to Gaza)."

"The Israeli military offensive" lasting 51 days from early July to late August killed nearly 550 Palestinian children.

Nearly 3,400 other children were wounded - many from illegal terror weapons.

Over 2,200 Palestinians died - mostly defenseless civilians.

"Investigations undertaken by (DCIP) into Palestinian child fatalities during Operation Protective Edge found overwhelming and repeated evidence of international humanitarian law violations committed by Israeli forces."

"These included direct attacks on children, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilian homes, schools, and residential neighborhoods."

Witness testimonies and other documented evidence DCIP collected "showed places that should have been provided children with shelter and safety were not immune from attacks from Israeli forces."

"Missiles fired from Israeli drones and warplanes, artillery shelling, and shrapnel scattered by explosions killed children in their homes, on the street as they fled from attacks with their families, and as they sought shelter from the bombardment in schools."

Israel killed scores of children in drone attacks alone. Clear evidence shows "Israeli forces directly targeted children."

One of many examples affected Rawya Joudeh and four of her five children. An Israeli drone attack murdered them in cold blood - "as they played together" in the family's Jabalia refugee camp yard.

Around half the number of children Israel killed came from attacks on residential buildings.

Sunday, July 20, characterized Israeli viciousness most clearly - the deadliest day for children throughout its lawless aggression.

A nighttime and ground assault on the residential Gaza City Shuja’iyya neighborhood killed 27 children. It injured at least 29 others.

Israeli armed forces are "regularly implicated in serious, systematic and institutionalized human rights violations against Palestinian children living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," said DCIP.

"Children affected by armed conflict are entitled to special respect and protections under international law…"

Israel breaches it repeatedly. It indiscriminately and disproportionately murders and injures defenseless Palestinian civilians in cold blood - including young children and infants, helpless against its onslaught.

Evidence of Israel high crimes is overwhelming. It bears repeating. Accountability is nowhere in sight - nor justice for long-suffering Palestinians.

DCIP stressed "(w)ithout an end to the current regime of collective punishment, targeted assassinations, and regular military offensives, the situation for Gaza's children (and all illegally occupied Palestinians is) guaranteed to further deteriorate."

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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