Local health authorities in Gaza said women and children make up 70 percent of the total number of civilians killed and wounded in the ongoing Israeli strikes on the enclave.
Gaza hospitals are overwhelmed by the wounded children and women including Abla and Lian, two sisters who were wounded in an Israeli strike on a neighboring house in the city of Rafah. They are still receiving treatment for fractures and burns at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
"They fired a missile at us while we were sitting at home. I was injured and suffered burns on both my hands and feet. My little sister, Abla, also suffered injuries and burns to her face and body," Lian recalled what she saw on the day she was wounded.
"We tell them that we are children, we have nothing to do with it, and we do not carry weapons against them. What is our fault? We are only children," Lian said.
Celia is another child who barely survived an Israeli bombing. She was injured when their house came under Israeli bombing, killing her mother and baby brother.
"My wife, Celia’s mother, and my infant son were martyred when he was only ten days old," Ashraf Abu Hajras, Celia’s father, recounted.
"We left the Al-Zinna border area and fled for our lives. We fled from one death to another. May Almighty God honor my wife and son with martyrdom and save my daughter Celia for me... Celia will continue to receive treatments for her fractures for six months," Abu Hajras said.
More than 3,000 children have so far been killed during the ongoing Israeli bombing, while more than 900 children are still missing under the rubble, according to the latest figures published by the Palestinian health ministry, adding that children have constituted the largest number of all the casualties.
The Palestinian health ministry is urgently appealing for medical assistance and necessary fuel needed to power hospitals to prevent a potential catastrophe, which poses a grave threat to the lives of the ill and injured
Israel declared war on Gaza after Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on Israel earlier this month, killing 1,400 people.
According to a UN report, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed 30 percent of the housing units in the Gaza Strip.
The UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has warned of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe as people who have taken refuge in schools continue to be unable to access food, water, and medicine.
