Colin Sheridan: Children are no longer just caught in the crossfire of war — they are targets

Hospitals raided. Schools blown to smithereens. Boy soldiers. Girls forced into sexual slavery. Entire generations grow up knowing nothing but instability. Childhood, as a concept, becomes abstract.

A young Palestinian girl has her hand held by a relative as a medic treats her wounds at a hospital following an Israeli air strike in Rafah. Photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images

In November 2023, as the burgeoning winter compounded the death and despair engulfing Gaza, the Israeli military raided Al Shifa hospital. Its stated aim was to root out Hamas operatives it claimed were operating within the facility. 

Soldiers moved floor to floor. Doctors, nurses, and medics were rounded up and detained, forcibly prevented from tending to their patients. Those who could not move were left behind. Among them were at least 29 premature newborn babies.