The youngest casualties of the conflict in Gaza

01.11.2009 | The Guardian

9 January 2009: Children make up more than half of Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants, and as such have found themselves in the firing line since Israel began its offensive against Hamas. Using unprecedented force, the Israeli army has launched raid after raid against the tiny, overcrowded territory, with the inevitable consequence that children have figured heavily among the casualty numbers. According to UN figures, more than 250 children have been killed and 1,080 wounded — about a third of the total casualties — since the offensive began on December 27. Here we look at the impact of the conflict on Palestinian children

29 December: Palestinian children walk past a destroyed mosque and houses after they were hit by an Israeli missile strike that killed Jawaher Baalusha, 4, and her four sisters in the northern Gaza Strip
Photograph: Abid Katib/Getty Images

29 December: A Palestinian man carries his wounded child to the treatment room of Kamal Adwan hospital following an Israeli missile strike in Beit Lahiya
Photograph: Ashraf Amra/AP

29 December: A Palestinian boy watches the funeral of three children in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said five young sisters, died in an Israeli air strike in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza and three other young children were killed when a bomb struck a house
Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

31 December: Palestinian children look from the window of their house as people queue to buy bread outside a bakery in the Jabaliya refugee camp
Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

31 December: Hosam Hamdan in in Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital intensive care unit after he was wounded and his two sisters killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip. At least 25% of Palestinians killed during Israel’s massive offensive in the Gaza Strip have been civilians, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said
Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images

1 January: A wounded Palestinian child screams as she arrives to the al-Shifa hospital after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City
Photograph: Fadi Adwan /Getty Images

1 January: A Palestinian woman with two wounded members of her family in hospital following an Israeli missile strike in Beit Hanoun. Israel dropped a bomb on the home of a Hamas strongman, killing him along with two wives and four children in the first attack on the top leadership of Gaza’s rulers
Photograph: Ashraf Amra/AP

1 January: Wounded Palestinian children are carried to a hospital after an Israeli air strike on the home of senior Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan in Gaza
Photograph: Ismail Zaydah /Reuters

5 January: Palestinian boys wounded by an Israeli tank shell wait for treatment at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza
Photograph: Suhaib Salem/Reuters

5 January: A Palestinian woman sits on the floor beside her baby wounded by an Israeli tank shell, at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. An Israeli tank shell killed three Palestinian children in their home in eastern Gaza City, medical officials said
Photograph: Suhaib Salem/Reuters

6 January: Palestinian girls, one of them according to Palestinian medical sources injured in Israeli forces’ operations in Gaza, wait at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City
Photograph: Ashraf Amra/AP

7 January: Palestinian children are seen at the United Nations school where their families took shelter following Israeli strikes, in the refugee camp of Jabaliya
Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA

8 January: Palestinian children with dual nationality watch from inside a bus as it departs the International Red Cross headquarters in Gaza City. About 250 foreigners left Gaza under a Red Cross escort after several attempts to get them out of the conflict-stricken territory were cancelled because of shelling, officials said
Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images