A self-inflicted tragedy in Gaza

 

A report on Thursday claimed that children were being deliberately targeted - executed, in so many words - by Israeli snipers in Gaza.

Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an American surgeon with heavy catastrophe-zone experience, is among those stunned by the civilian devastation they've recently witnessed in Gaza, and especially by a high volume of what appear to be precision rifle-fire wounds on children -- including toddlers.

"All of the disasters I've seen, combined – 40 mission trips, 30 years, Ground Zero, earthquakes, all of that combined – doesn't equal the level of carnage that I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza," Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon and vice president of the International College of Surgeons, told CBS's Sunday Morning.

. . .

Perlmutter, a Jew who grew up in New Jersey and who now lives in North Carolina, was also disturbed what what he attributed to precise rifle fire directed at children, some of whom were "shot twice." 

"I have two children that I have photographs of that were shot so perfectly in the chest, I couldn't put my stethoscope over their heart more accurately, and directly on the side of the head, in the same child. No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the 'world's best sniper.' And they're dead-center shots."

His description of the phenomenon was confirmed to CBS News by more than 20 other doctors who'd recently visited Gaza. An American doctor had such a problem grasping what he was seeing that he double-checked using CT scans, saying he "didn't believe that this many children could be admitted to a single hospital with gunshot wounds to the head."

There's more at the link.

It should be noted that the gist of that article has been repeated in sources such as Common Dreams (an explicitly progressive-left outlet), Politico and Democracy Now!  I have no idea of the political views of Dr. Perlmutter, but I suspect the views of such outlets are clues.  I note, too, that neither he nor any of the others involved have spoken about Hamas atrocities on October 7, 2023, or at other times.  It seems a rather one-sided perspective.  That does not, of course, affect the very real disaster that has befallen the people, particularly the children, of Gaza, but it does - must - condition one's perspective on it.

It's tragic to read about that disaster, and even more tragic to see it in real life.  I speak from all too bitter personal experience, because in the terrorist wars in southern Africa during the 1970's and 1980's, children were cold-bloodedly and brutally used as couriers, cover, even as armed combatants, by the terrorist movements.  The kids were given no choice in the matter, and their parents had no option but to let them do so - or be killed themselves as "counter-revolutionary sell-outs".  In rural areas of Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe), and to a certain extent in the Ovambo regions of South West Africa (today Namibia), it became common for terrorist gangs to kidnap whole schools full of kids and send them across the border to be trained as guerrillas/terrorists in their turn.  The security forces attempted to rescue them before they could be taken out of the country, but seldom succeeded - and when they did, many of the kids died or were wounded in the crossfire.

There were many incidents where security forces were deliberately placed in a no-win situation by terrorists using kids as cover, or to take military equipment to fighters by concealing it in their schoolbags (for example, magazines of ammunition, hand grenades, or even a land-mine or two).  Some children were even used as soldiers, not in uniform, but carrying grenades or other lethal devices and throwing them at a patrol while walking with a group of their fellow kids.  When fire was returned, it wasn't just the guilty ones who died.

I described some years ago how a baby was used to camouflage a land-mine, positioned to catch a patrol.

I remember Gavin, who was a member of a patrol that found a baby, too young to walk, sitting in the middle of a dirt road in a township, crying. As the point man and a couple of others walked up to see why the baby was just sitting there, the terrorists waiting in ambush blew up the landmine they'd buried beneath her, killing the point man and savagely mutilating the other two soldiers. Bits of flesh and blood from the soldiers, and the baby, splattered all over Gavin . . . across his face . . . in his eyes, nose and mouth.

For years, Gavin would start awake in the small hours at night, a scream of horror on his lips. "They blew up a baby! A baby!" Gavin's wife eventually left him, because she couldn't handle the strain of living with his nightmares. Psychiatric treatment couldn't break the cycle; nor could alcohol, or drugs (legal and illegal). Gavin took his own life at last, too tormented by what he'd seen to endure any longer, in the small hours every night, the parade of images across his closed eyelids. He was a hero in my book . . . and I'll always remember him as such.

There was another case where a dead baby was literally hollowed out, presumably by its mother.  Its body cavity was filled with explosives, and then carried through a military checkpoint to conceal the ordnance.  It worked the first time . . . and the second . . . but by the third time, decomposition had set in, and a whiff of it came to the nostrils of one of the soldiers at the checkpoint.  He investigated, and uncovered the scheme.  (The mother claimed - possibly truthfully - that she'd been forced to cooperate with the terrorists;  therefore, no action was taken against her.  I had my doubts.)

I was present when a vehicle-mounted patrol was passing through a very volatile area.  A woman rushed out from behind a hut, with a baby strapped to her chest in the typical African manner.  She charged the lead vehicle, holding a Molotov cocktail in either hand, their fuses lit.  The soldiers on the vehicle had a very simple binary choice.  Shoot her - which meant snap-shooting, probably through the baby on her chest, because there was no time to take careful aim and avoid it - or be immolated when the gasoline bombs exploded inside the load bed of the patrol vehicle.  You can imagine their feelings . . . but they were left with no other options.  She, and her baby, died.  Whose fault was that baby's death?  Not the soldiers', I would argue.

Older kids, as noted earlier, were used as couriers, pack mules, and resupply trains, particularly where the presence of international journalists might be presumed to inhibit troops - who knew exactly what they were doing - from shooting at them.  It seldom worked.

US forces encountered precisely the same thing in Afghanistan and Iraq.  It's happening in Gaza, too.  We've all seen videos on YouTube and elsewhere of how Gaza kids are brainwashed and indoctrinated to seek martyrdom, to hate Jews, and to lash out at them whenever and wherever they can.  If you or I were an Israeli sniper or designated marksman in Gaza right now, and saw a baby being used as "live cover" by its mother in a critical situation, or an older kid making a run towards our troops or carrying supplies towards a known enemy strongpoint . . . I daresay we'd take the shot in a heartbeat, because if we didn't, our own troops would suffer the consequences.  That's the cold, hard, brutal reality of a terrorist war.  There are no morals.  There are no rules - except, "Survive!"  Allow me to assure you:  if you hesitate, you won't.

When you're dealing with a ruthless, homicidal movement like Hamas, which has openly stated that civilian casualties serve its purpose as propaganda, it's even worse.  I wish we could know precisely what side shot each of those children.  The answer might be very revealing.  We do know that for years, Hamas has routinely trained children at summer camps to be terrorists.  It has sent children to confront Israeli soldiers on patrol, throwing stones at them, in the hope that the soldiers will shoot back, thereby creating more propaganda about "Israeli atrocities" for dissemination.  Hamas wants child casualties.  It glories in them.

Yes, Israeli forces almost certainly are targeting kids who show themselves in suspicious circumstances.  I'm more saddened by that tragedy than words can say, but I'm not surprised by it.  I'm more surprised at how few kids in Gaza have been shot like that.  As a proportion of the population, I daresay it's minuscule.  I submit that speaks to the discipline and training of the Israeli troops involved (see, for example, the videos linked in the previous paragraph).  There may be a few renegade souls in Israeli uniform who are actively seeking to murder innocent kids in Gaza, but I think it's very unlikely.  I hope and pray I'm not wrong.

May God receive the souls of the children who die like that;  and may He visit condign punishment on those who force them into situations where that can happen to them.

*Sigh*

Peter