Cries from Palestine: A Call for Action from Pediatric Providers

Abstract

As pediatric providers we are united together with our shared dedication to the health, wellbeing and happiness of children. We have been entrusted to care for those without a voice, a commitment that transcends race, religion, and borders. The pediatric community has long been at the forefront of protecting children from their transgressors. Yet, over the past weeks more than 12,000 Palestinian children (and counting) have died in reprehensible fashion.¹ Not by disease or famine, but rather as result of a collective punishment by the apartheid State of Israel following the Hamas attack. Israel press has reported cases of Far-right Israeli settlers celebrating the murder of Palestinian children.^2-4

At the time of writing, daily dozens of children corpses continue enduring unrest, mutilation and death. The remains of children trapped under the rubble⁵ will indubitably never receive the dignity of burial. Meanwhile, anguish persists for families of children buried in their native soil⁶ as the onslaught of carpet bombing campaigns continue in the midst of an ongoing genocide.⁷