In Gaza, unsparingly attacked by Israeli forces, children have their names inked on various parts of their body so that they would identified if they were killed in airstrikes and receive proper burials.
The names of the children are inked in Arabic on the body parts of children including forehand and legs.
A journalist working for CNN has filmed videos showing parents in Gaza writing their children’s names on their legs to help identify them should either they or the children get killed.
The CNN report says the videos are from Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, a district where Israeli airstrikes took place overnight Saturday into Sunday.
They show a toddler and three children who have been killed, bearing their names written in Arabic on their calves. All four are seen lying on stretchers placed on the floor in a room that appears to be a morgue, which is full. It’s unclear whether their parents were also killed, the report said.
The report quoted the journalist as saying that the practice has become more commonplace in recent days. There have been chaotic scenes in several Gaza hospitals in the aftermath of air strikes, with insufficient room to handle the influx of patients and morgues overflowing.
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The videos show that in parts of the Al Aqsa hospital, which is overrun with patients, the injured people, including children, were lying in corridors on makeshift beds and mattresses on Sunday morning.
The videos also show a stream of patients being brought in on stretchers early Sunday morning. Dozens of people have gathered outside for safety, while others are seen grieving.
Palestinian hospitals refuse to evacuate, simply because there is nowhere else to go, but also because hundreds of patients would die if they are unhooked from life-saving machines, The Palestinian Chronicle reports.
On Sunday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 1,750 children had been killed in the 16 days of bombardment by Israeli forces following Hamas’s murderous onslaught on 7 October. That is an average of almost 110 children a day. Thousands more have been injured.
