Israel’s war on Gaza has weaponized future Palestinian generations

As Israel and Hamas consider US President Joe Biden’s three-phase deal to reach an enduring ceasefire and end the bloody eight-month war, the wanton slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza continues unabated. The death toll has crossed a staggering 36,000, with thousands more missing and almost 80,000 injured. Most of the Gaza Strip — home to 2.2 million people — has been turned into rubble. Even if the war were to end today, the catastrophic humanitarian situation would linger for years.

And if and when the world manages to agree on a plan to rebuild the Strip — a humongous goal that would take years, if not decades, to accomplish — what of the millions of Gazans who are now displaced and have become refugees, many not for the first time in their lives? And for that to happen, with Israel’s acquiescence, the most pressing question will have to be answered: Who will rule Gaza once the dust settles?

As stakeholders debate the issue and negotiate, Gaza’s children emerge as the most vulnerable in the worst military conflict this century. Heart-wrenching statistics indicate that more than 14,000 children were killed in the first six months of the war and hundreds of babies have lost their lives because Israel bombed hospitals or denied them the fuel needed to keep incubators going.

More than 10,000 women have been killed, among them an estimated 6,000 mothers, leaving 19,000 children orphaned, while entire families have been wiped out. Babies have survived with no living relatives to claim them. Unaccompanied children are registered as “unknown,” or under the acronym “WCNSF” — wounded child, no surviving family. An unknown number of children have died of malnutrition and famine. Worst of all, the carnage is continuing and these horrific numbers will only increase.

The reality for civilians and especially children in Gaza is terrifying. And it is getting worse by the day

Osama Al-Sharif

The reality for civilians and especially children in Gaza is terrifying. And it is getting worse by the day. The attack on a makeshift camp in Rafah last week, an area designated as safe by Israel, claimed the lives of women and children — the chilling image of a decapitated child summing it all up.

Women and girls have been significantly impacted by the war. According to UN reports, more than 1 million Palestinian women and girls in Gaza have almost no access to food or safe water, with disease growing amid inhumane living conditions. One Gaza woman was quoted by a UN report as saying: “In Gaza, we (women) cannot meet our simplest and most basic needs: eating well, drinking safe water, accessing a toilet, having (sanitary) pads, taking a shower … changing our clothes.”

There are no functioning schools in Gaza today. Most UN Relief and Works Agency schools have either been bombed or turned into shelters. More than 800 schools are estimated to have been attacked or destroyed in the first five months of the war, while 17 higher education institutions lie in ruins — testimony to Israeli intentions to deny young Gazans an opportunity to study and learn.

More than 625,000 students have been deprived of teachers or safe places to learn. The war has destroyed any academic future for these children. According to the UN, Gaza’s population is disproportionately young, with about 65 percent being 24 years of age or younger.

As for the 19,000 orphans in Gaza, the future is bleak and scary. There are no schools, no care centers and no working orphanages. No one has any idea how these thousands of children are surviving or if they will ever live a normal everyday life after suffering such mental and physical injuries.

Few are asking the hard questions. What will happen to future Palestinian generations, especially in war-torn Gaza? What kind of life will they have if they survive to reach adulthood? The majority are now displaced and will live the rest of their lives as refugees with no hope of a better future. What kind of society will these children grow up in? What kind of economic and social reality awaits them? How will they feel about Israel? Most will become radicalized if a political solution to the plight of the Palestinians is not found.

The children Israel has left motherless, fatherless and with no access to a healthy environment will never forget or forgive

Osama Al-Sharif

It is hard to imagine an optimistic scenario becoming a reality when most of Gaza has been declared a disaster area and when the most basic survival needs are now absent. The environmental impact of the war has made Gaza unlivable, another deliberate goal of Israel. The enclave’s underground water is contaminated because Israel struck the only sewage treatment plant. There has been a spike in waterborne diseases, while the use of illegal weapons, like white phosphorus, will have adverse effects on water, earth and the environment for many generations.

This eight-month-old war may continue for a few more weeks or even months. And Israel may somehow find a way to defeat Hamas. Still, if there is a lesson to be learned, especially by Israelis, it is that the Palestinian people cannot be beaten after more than seven decades of struggling to have a place among free nations.

What Israel has done so far — aside from the mass destruction, the atrocities and the targeting of civilians and all symbols of civilian life in Gaza — is weaponize future generations of Palestinians. Those thousands of orphans, the surviving families, the grieving mothers and fathers and the millions who have suffered the most horrific genocidal war in modern times will only become more hostile, more radicalized and more determined. Is this the next generation Israel wants to fight and kill?

The children that Israel has left behind, motherless, fatherless and with no access to a healthy, stable and moderate environment, will never forget or forgive. The wanton destruction of Gaza was never about destroying Hamas. The bombing of hospitals, schools and universities was never about replacing the armed resistance. It was about extermination and final displacement outside Gaza.

Israel has lost all of its political assets abroad. It is now becoming a pariah state, no matter how this war ends. What eight months of genocidal war has done to Israel’s image of itself is irreparable. The legacy of its killing of children and babies in Gaza will haunt it forever. But what Israel should be wary of is that those thousands of surviving orphans and their peers in the West Bank and beyond will only grow up to be radicalized so long as the occupation continues.

This is not a war to end all wars with the Palestinians, but a failed and myopic attempt to pursue a foolish plan to subjugate the Palestinians once and for all. That plan has been doomed from the very beginning.

• Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. X: @plato010