Gaza: Israeli Attacks Devastate Lives of Children with Disabilities

• The Israeli government’s attacks and unlawful blockade against Gaza have inflicted profound suffering on children with disabilities, and explosive weapons have left many others with permanent disabilities.
• The ongoing siege of Gaza causes disproportionate harm to children with disabilities, who already faced a precarious situation, and they are at particular risk of lasting psychological harm.
• Countries should suspend arms transfers so long as its forces commit serious laws-of-war violations with impunity, including unlawful restrictions on aid and attacks on hospitals.

The 83-page report, “‘They Destroyed What Was Inside Us’: Children with Disabilities Amid Israel’s Attacks on Gaza,” documents that children who have acquired a disability and children who already had a disability in Gaza face a precarious security situation and additional difficulties as they struggle to comply with frequent Israeli army evacuation orders and a lack of effective advance warning of attacks.

The ongoing siege of Gaza, the unlawful obstruction of humanitarian aid, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, and damage and destruction of hospitals cause disproportionate harm to children with disabilities, who struggle to access desperately needed medical treatment and supplies, assistive devices, food, and water. They are at particular risk of lasting psychological harm.

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Interview: Children with Disabilities Struggling in Gaza

We spoke with Emina Ćerimović, Associate Director of Human Rights Watch’s Disability Rights Division, about her new report’s findings, what the current situation is for children with disabilities and their families in Gaza, and what it was like conducting this research.

READ THE INTERVIEW

“The Israeli military’s unlawful attacks and denial of aid are harming and traumatizing Palestinians throughout Gaza, but children with disabilities are facing increased threats to their lives and safety,” said Emina Ćerimović, associate disability rights director at Human Rights Watch.

“Countries providing military support to Israel should suspend arms transfers so long as its forces commit serious laws-of-war violations with impunity, including unlawful restrictions on aid and attacks on hospitals.”

The Israeli military’s use of explosive weapons in densely populated areas raises the risk of unlawfully indiscriminate attacks, Human Rights Watch said.

Family members and medical professionals report that Israeli attacks damaging homes, schools, hospitals, and shopping malls, without advance warning, caused death, severe injuries, and permanent disabilities to children.

For the report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 20 family members of children with disabilities, a child with a disability, and 13 medical and humanitarian workers.

Human Rights Watch reviewed medical records of several children with disabilities and over 50 videos and photographs showing the aftermath of attacks documented in this report.

Leila al-Kafarna, a mother of three, said an Israeli evacuation order drove her family from Beit Hanoun to Deir al-Balah, where they believed they would be safe. Instead, on October 24, 2023, an Israeli strike hit the mall in the central market in Nuseirat refugee camp, injuring her 13-year-old son, Malek, who lost his left arm. She said there was no advance warning:

“The missile [munition] was hitting the supermarket, and I lost consciousness. … I woke up and I was still holding my son’s hand, so I started running … and then I felt like my son was light, as if there was no weight on the arm. So, I looked and didn’t see my son anywhere near me, and that was when I discovered that I was holding only his arm.”

Interview: Children with Disabilities Struggling in Gaza

We spoke with Emina Ćerimović, Associate Director of Human Rights Watch’s Disability Rights Division, about her new report’s findings, what the current situation is for children with disabilities and their families in Gaza, and what it was like conducting this research.

READ THE INTERVIEW

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported that thousands of children in Gaza have acquired a disability from injuries caused by explosive weapons since October 7, 2023. Before then, 98,000 children in Gaza already had a disability.

Some of those children and their family described the difficulties they faced in fleeing, especially in the absence of advance warnings or assistive devices and given the heavy destruction they had to navigate.

Ghazal, a 15-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, said she lost her assistive devices in an attack on her home in Gaza City on October 11: “I was a burden on them [my family], an extra load alongside their belongings. I couldn’t find any means of transportation. I gave up and sat on the ground in the middle of the road, crying. I told them to go on without me.”

The Israeli government’s blockade on Gaza, restrictions on humanitarian aid including medicine and medical supplies, and severe restrictions on who can leave Gaza for treatment are especially damaging to children, including children with disabilities.

Injured children in urgent need of immediate medical attention have endured inordinately long waiting times and undergone surgery without anesthesia, adding to their trauma.

Children who require ongoing medical care have gone without regular access to it for almost a year.

Children with disabilities who require a specific diet are at a particularly high risk of malnutrition and starvation. Israeli restrictions on water supplies and destruction of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure disproportionally affects children with disabilities.

Compounding this dire situation, children with disabilities are facing psychological harm due to the violence and deprivation they have experienced or witnessed, including trauma from losing parents.

As of September 2024, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that more than 41,000 Palestinians, including more than 16,750 children, have been killed since October 7.

Both international humanitarian law and international human rights law provide for the protection of people with disabilities, including children, during armed conflict.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by Israel in 2012, obligates states party to take “all necessary measures,” in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law, to ensure the protection and safety of people with disabilities in situations of armed conflict.

The failure of the Israeli military to provide adaptable evacuation procedures for children with disabilities violates their rights under the convention and increases their likelihood of additional injury or even death.

Taking “all necessary measures” to ensure the safety and protection of people with disabilities during armed conflict would also entail access to the means necessary for their survival, including food, water, medication, health care, and assistive devices, all of which have mostly been absent in Gaza due to the blockade.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and other European Union member states, as well as other Israeli allies, should specifically condemn Israeli abuses that cause particular harm to Palestinian children, including the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, the siege of Gaza and restrictions on humanitarian aid, and unlawful attacks on hospitals and medical transport.

These governments should adopt targeted sanctions and other measures to press the Israeli government to comply with its international obligations and specifically to address the needs of Palestinian children with disabilities.

They should also cooperate with Palestinian and Egyptian authorities to identify children with disabilities who need medical treatment abroad and facilitate their evacuation for treatment.

The United States, Germany, and other countries continuing to provide arms and military assistance to Israel risk complicity in war crimes and grave human rights violations. 

“Israeli authorities need to take immediate action to end the wrongful deaths, injuries, and suffering of children, particularly those with disabilities,” Ćerimović said.

“Governments should urgently adopt measures to press the Israeli government to comply with its legal obligations to prevent further atrocities and to ensure the rights of children with disabilities, and everyone else, are respected.”