Jamil Ihab Najm

 August 07, 2022: Jamil Ihab Najm, 13, was killed after the Israeli army fired missiles targeting homes in the Gaza Strip. He was one of 17 Palestinian children confirmed killed during the Israeli military’s three-day military offensive on the Gaza Strip August 5 – 7.

On August 7, an Israeli drone-fired missile struck Al-Fallujah cemetery, west of Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, around 7 p.m., according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International. The Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinian children: Jameel Najmuddin Jameel Najim, 3; Hamed Heidar Hamed Najim, 16; Jameel Ihab Jameel Najim, 13; Mohammad Salah Hamed Najim, 16; and Nathmi Fayez Abdulhadi Abu Karsh, 15.

The Israeli military launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on August 5, killing at least 44 people and injuring at least 350, according to Al Jazeera. A ceasefire went into effect at 11:30 p.m. on August 7. The Israeli military offensive came just days after Israeli forces arrested a senior Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank city of Jenin and killed 16-year-old Dirar Riyad Lufti Al-Haj Saleh, also in Jenin, who was protesting the Israeli military’s incursion into Jenin refugee camp.

International humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks and requires all parties to an armed conflict to distinguish between military targets, civilians, and civilian objects. Israel as the occupying power in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the Gaza Strip, is required to protect the Palestinian civilian population from violence.

Israeli authorities have imposed a closure policy against the Gaza Strip since 2007 by strictly controlling and limiting the entry and exit of individuals; maintaining harsh restrictions on imports, including food, construction materials, fuel, and other essential items; as well as prohibiting exports. Israel continues to maintain complete control over the Gaza Strip’s borders, airspace, and territorial waters.

Since 2008, Israel has waged four wars on the Palestinian territory, killing nearly 4,000 people – one-quarter of them children.

According to data compiled by Defense for Children International, at least 2,200 children have been killed by the Israeli military and Israeli settlers across the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2000 – the beginning of the second intifada.

Jamil was from Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. Source: Al Jazeera