Children between the tyranny of aggression and the silence of the world.. Yemen – Gaza – Lebanon

Last updated Nov 20, 2024

While the world celebrates the International Day for the Rights of the Child, which falls on November 20, children in Yemen, Gaza and Lebanon are still exposed to the most heinous American, Zionist, British and Saudi aggression.

The injustice of the Yemenis, Palestinians and Lebanese are similar in the crimes and violations committed by the forces of global hegemony and tyranny, although their names, titles and justifications differ, with the difference in time as more than seven decades have passed since the Palestinian cause, which will remain the central and first cause of the Yemeni and Lebanese people.

The children of Yemen, Palestine and Lebanon are an example of a human tragedy created by the arrogant countries led by America and the Western countries and their tools in the region, by practicing killing and direct targeting unjustly and aggressively, in addition to using the policy of starvation as a means of war to destroy civilians, including children and women, in fully-fledged war crimes in accordance with the principles of international humanitarian law and international conventions on the state of war that prohibit the killing of civilians and the deliberate targeting of civilian objects and criminalize the siege.

The crimes of the Zionist entity in Gaza and Lebanon, and the US-Saudi-Emirati coalition in Yemen, will remain living evidence that generations will remember throughout history of the horror of the massacres and genocidal war that have been committed, which shames humanity.

The Intisaf Organization for Women and Children’s Rights issued a human rights report entitled “Children between the tyranny of aggression and the silence of the world” documenting the effects and repercussions of the siege and aggression on children in Yemen, Gaza and Lebanon and the mechanisms of psychological support, coinciding with the International Day of the Rights of the Child, which falls on November 20 of each year.

The report addressed the catastrophic and tragic conditions that children in Yemen have been living in for nearly ten years due to the aggression and siege, as well as the catastrophic conditions that children in Palestine and Lebanon are living in due to the Zionist-American aggression on the Gaza Strip. It pointed out that the aggression coalition on Yemen and the Zionist aggression on Gaza and Lebanon committed the most heinous massacres and six serious violations against childhood and international laws and conventions, as they targeted homes, schools, mosques and civilian facilities and imposed a complete siege on civilians, which led to the aggravation and deterioration of the situation. The report stated that since the beginning of the aggression on Yemen on March 26, 2015, until November 19, 2024, the number of child victims reached 4,136 martyrs, and 5,110 wounded children, while the number of child victims of the Zionist occupation in Gaza since October 7, 2023 has exceeded 17,492 children, and the number of wounded from the Zionist occupation raids has risen to 104,008 wounded, most of whom are women and children, while the number of missing persons has exceeded 11,000 people, including a large number of children who are still under the rubble. In Lebanon, the number of civilian victims due to the Zionist targeting has reached 3,544 martyrs and 15,035 wounded, most of whom are women and children since October 8, 2023, as there are more children buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings throughout the country.

The report stated that the aggression aircraft on Yemen launched 2,932 raids with cluster bombs during the past nine years, and the total number of civilian victims due to the use of these bombs reached nearly nine thousand victims, most of whom were women and children.

According to the report, the aggression on Yemen destroyed 572 hospitals, facilities and health facilities, targeted 100 ambulances and their crews, prevented the entry of medical supplies for chronic diseases, and stopped more than 60 percent of the health sector, while four million, 521 thousand and 727 children and women suffer from acute, general and severe malnutrition, including 313 thousand and 790 children under the age of five who suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

The suffering of children and women was present in the report, which monitored with numbers and statistics the numbers of children and women who were afflicted with malnutrition (pregnant and lactating women). According to the report, 1,777,423 children suffer from general malnutrition, 1,463,633 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and 966,881 pregnant and breastfeeding women struggle to survive in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe caused by the aggression.

It indicated that more than 8.5 million children need humanitarian assistance and face the daily threat of food shortages, displacement, continued reduction of aid, and the suspension of malnutrition prevention programs and interventions. Nearly 80 percent of the population – more than 24 million people – need some form of humanitarian assistance.

According to the statistics included in the report, more than 80 newborns die daily due to the repercussions of the use of internationally banned weapons. The actual need for the health sector is estimated at about two thousand incubators, while it only has 600 incubators. As a result, 50 percent of premature babies die. The incidence of cancer has also increased to 35 thousand people, including more than a thousand children. He pointed out that the number of people with disabilities has increased from three million before the aggression on Yemen to 4.5 million people currently, while more than six thousand civilians have been disabled as a result of armed hostilities since the beginning of the aggression, including more than five thousand and 559 children. In addition, 16 thousand cases of women and children need motor rehabilitation. The report touched on the education situation, as the aggression coalition targeted educational facilities, which led to the destruction and damage of about 28 thousand educational and educational facilities, more than 45 governmental and private universities and colleges, and 74 technical and technical institutes. He explained that the aggression coalition raids targeted schools and as a result 3,676 schools were damaged, 419 of which were completely destroyed, 1,506 schools were partially damaged, 756 schools were closed, 995 schools were used to shelter the displaced, and more than one million male and female students dropped out of education, while 8.1 million children need emergency educational assistance throughout the country, and 2.4 million children are out of school out of 10 million and 600 thousand children of school age. The report noted that 1.6 million working children in Yemen are deprived of their most basic rights, and the number of working children reached 7.7 million, or about 34.3 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17, indicating that the aggression and the siege are the reason for the increase in the rate of child labor in Yemen. The number of displaced persons has risen to five million, 159 thousand, and 560 displaced persons in 15 Yemeni governorates under the control of the Salvation Government, of whom one million, 168 thousand, and 664 individuals do not receive aid to this day.

The report said that nine out of ten children in the displacement camps in Yemen do not have sufficient opportunities to obtain their most basic needs such as education, food, and potable water, and about 1.71 million displaced children in the country are still deprived of basic services, and half a million of them do not receive formal education.

With regard to the Gaza Strip in Palestine, the Zionist occupation completely destroyed 815 mosques, and partially destroyed 151 mosques, in addition to targeting three churches, and 477 schools and 276 health institutions, hospitals, and health centers were put out of service. Regarding Lebanon, the Zionist occupation targeted 88 medical and emergency centers, 40 hospitals, and 244 health sector vehicles, and carried out attacks on 65 hospitals and 218 ambulance associations.

According to the report, the children of Gaza are living in deteriorating conditions due to the depletion of fuel and food, and the interruption of water and electricity. The Zionist occupation prevents the entry of aid through the Rafah crossing, and if it allows it to enter, only a small portion of it enters, which is not enough to cover the needs of the residents of the Strip.

It stated that the number of displaced people in Gaza has reached two million people, including a large number of children, and in Lebanon, about 1.4 million people were forced to leave the areas targeted by the Zionist occupation bombing.

The report touched on the international laws and treaties that called for the protection of children during wars and conflicts and the extent of their implementation by the United Nations and its organizations during the aggression on Yemen and Gaza, stressing that these organizations were complicit in everything that happened against the Yemeni, Palestinian and Lebanese people and took a shameful stance in the face of all the crimes committed in Yemen, Gaza and Lebanon.

He reviewed the psychological and social effects of the aggression on children and ways to support them psychologically in crises, calling for stopping the aggression and siege on Yemen, Palestine and Lebanon and forming an impartial international investigation committee to investigate all crimes and massacres committed there.

The head of the Intisaf Organization, Samia Al-Ta’ifi, explained to the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) that the launch of the report coincides with the International Day for the Rights of the Child, which falls on November 20, and reminds the world of the massacres committed by America, Israel, Western countries and their tools in the region in Yemen, Palestine and Lebanon.

She pointed out that the report documented the crimes of aggression against children in Yemen, Palestine and Lebanon, in addition to the human suffering created by the aggression coalition on Yemen as a result of its criminal practices, as well as the human tragedy of the children of Lebanon and Palestine, specifically in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Ta’ifi called on the international community, the United Nations, international and humanitarian bodies and organizations to assume responsibility in stopping the crimes of the American-Zionist aggression on Gaza and Lebanon, lifting the siege and allowing the entry of food, medicine and fuel to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni, Palestinian and Lebanese people.