I’m a paediatrician who’s worked in Gaza – make no mistake, this is a war against children

By relentlessly inflicting violence, destruction and starvation on the people of Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu is depriving a generation of Palestinians of their childhood, writes Dr Jane Crawley. Nowhere is safe

WCNSF is a chilling abbreviation used by aid workers in Gaza, standing for ‘wounded child, no surviving family’ (AFP/Getty)

Fatima is three years old and lives in a shelter run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Rafah, at the southern end of Gaza. Her parents and two older brothers were killed when their apartment in Gaza City was bombed and destroyed by the Israeli forces.

Fatima was trapped under rubble for six hours, then rescued and rushed to hospital where her left arm was amputated. She was finally discharged into the care of neighbourhood friends, but intense bombardment forced her new family to move south, first to Khan Younis and then to Rafah.

The UNRWA shelter is densely overcrowded. People are tense, and there are intermittent outbreaks of violence. There is limited access to food and clean water – and a two-hour wait to use the toilet.