“They were shooting from helicopters, tanks, soldiers, everywhere, and we were so afraid,” explains Najib, a Palestinian boy from the town of Beit Jala, in a simplistic and confused manner. Marwa, an 11-year old girl, also from Beit Jala, paints a picture of Al-Aqsa Mosque and a church, between them a crying boy, lifting the Palestinian flag.

These images have come to haunt the children of Palestine, the children of another world. A world in which the purity and sanctity of childhood is replaced with fear, frustration, and uncertainty.

As the daily Israeli strikes continue to grow fiercer against Palestinian towns and villages, there is an alarming indication of a traumatised generation. Palestinian children are being faced with the daily horrors of Israeli gunshots, tank shells, helicopter missiles, and most frequently, the ongoing images of killings and funerals, whether on television or in real life.

Of the 270 Palestinians killed over the past two months, almost 90 are children below the age of 18. Of all those injured, 40% are also children, some with critical injuries and disabilities. What impact would that have on Marwa’s innocent little world?

Even indirectly, the lives of most Palestinian children have been severely affected by Israel’s ongoing siege of Palestinian towns and villages. Many Palestinian schools have been shut down due to the closures, and some even evacuated and turned into Israeli army posts.

Palestinian children constantly see their elders humiliated, injured, and, in many cases, killed by Israeli soldiers; they feel unprotected and vulnerable, they feel insecure.

There is an urgent need to bring all this to an “end.”

“Stop killing Palestinian children” (physically and emotionally) is not merely a slogan; it is a desperate call for Israel to respect the universality of children’s rights, and the fragility of childhood.