GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The pediatrics wing of the
largest hospital in the Gaza Strip is filled with the youngest victims
of more than two weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting.
Palestinian
health officials say more than 800 Palestinians have been killed and
more than 5,200 wounded by Israeli airstrikes and tank fire aimed at
what Israel says are Hamas targets. The United Nations says civilians
make up three-fourths of the dead and a majority of the wounded. Among
the dead have been at least 192 children and teens age 17 and under, the
U.N. says.
The Israeli military says it is doing its utmost to
spare civilians, including by sending evacuation warnings to homes and
neighborhoods that are about to be hit in Israel’s air- and ground
operation. However, Gaza is densely populated, with 1.7 million people
squeezed into a small strip of land on the Mediterranean Sea, leaving
little room for escape.
Israel says the goal of its operation is
to destroy Hamas military tunnels under the Gaza-Israel border and to
halt rocket fire from Gaza on Israeli communities.
Here are
portraits of 11 children recovering from their injuries at Gaza City’s
Shifa Hospital. They range in age from two to 10. Most were wounded in
airstrikes on their homes or neighborhoods, with injuries ranging from a
broken pelvis to a broken nose and fractured skull.