Why can’t children’s lives be saved in brutal wars?

I find it hard to believe that innocent children are being slaughtered in the ongoing Israel- Hamas war. I therefore ask myself; can’t we have guns that will not discharge when directed at children?

Or bombs and other explosives used in wars that would not explode when aimed at children? In other words, can’t all children of the world be provided with a wing-like device that could make it possible for them to escape these war zones?

This is a fantasy but the world can be a better place to live if we could have child-friendly munitions or flying devices so children could be saved in times of armed conflict. But these fantasies notwithstanding, we still can fall on the International Humanitarian Law (IHL)to save children in times of war but the law is being violated at will.

The International Humanitarian Law based on the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949, “provides general protection for children as persons taking no part in hostilities, and special protection as persons who are particularly vulnerable.”
The ongoing armed conflict between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas militants continues to present a gruesome scenario of massacres that can idiomatically be described as, “a hammer and nail at work trying to use their combined force to pierce the heart of children” while the rest of the world looks on as spectators albeit, helplessly.

The combatants have woefully ignored the human cost, especially given the International Humanitarian Law, and therefore guilty of war crimes. The most disturbing aspect of it is that so far, the death toll of children in the war, according to Palestinian sources has risen to nearly 3,000 in Gaza alone and the number of casualties keeps rising.

Aside from this, 14 children were reported to have died among the 1,400 Israeli victims of the October 7 Hamas attack while some are listed among the 200 captives.

On day to day-to-day basis, a news source has disclosed that “one child is killed every 15 minutes in the ongoing Israeli bombings of Gaza.” What a tragedy!

Children, as the most vulnerable members in every human society, have never known to be war protagonists. In the contemporary sense, one can reason that they cannot dance to the tumultuous tunes of war drums because they have feeble limbs and muscles. The noise of firecrackers even scares them not to talk of the booming sounds of tanks, armored bulldozers, artillery tankers, and trucks as well as other heavy war machinery.

The children in Palestine to say the least, are in big trouble since no one can predict when exactly the ongoing conflict in Gaza will end. This suggests that their pain and anguish are going to endure so long as the war continues. But how I wish that no more children would be led to the slaughterhouse.

This is not the best time to live as a child in Gaza and even in other parts of the world where armed conflicts are raging because there could be a spillover with other parties joining in.

As a Child Rights advocate, and like millions of others who care so much about the security and welfare of children, I cannot pretend that I don’t feel the pain of the attack on children. I am in this state of fear and uncertainty because I share the view that, “anytime guns are turned on children during conflict, the world shoots itself in the foot.”

Being part of the global adult population, anytime I read about stories of children being the casualties of war - I feel that pain because my foot has also been shot – I am wounded. But I do not just bear the pain or limp, I shoulder a heavy guilt because I am Looking on like the rest of the world while the onslaught, amidst a firepower that is not child-friendly, goes on day and night.

“There are no winners in a war where thousands of children are killed”- UN Child Rights Committee.