美联社
7岁的苏西·伊什孔塔纳在加沙城的希法医院接受42岁的父亲里亚德·伊什孔塔纳的亲吻
加沙城，加沙——苏西·伊什孔塔纳几乎不说话，也不吃饭。两天前，这个7岁的女孩被从曾经是她家的废墟中救出，这里在以色列的一系列空袭中被摧毁。当她的兄弟姐妹和母亲在她身边死去时，她在废墟中埋了几个小时。
在以色列对加沙地带的轰炸中，儿童正遭受巨大的创伤。对一些人来说，这是他们在短暂的一生中反复看到的创伤。
这是12年来以色列和加沙的哈马斯统治者第四次开战。每次，以色列都在人口稠密的加沙地带发动猛烈的空袭，发誓要阻止哈马斯向以色列发射火箭弹。
加沙称健康官员们说，自5月10日以色列和哈马斯之间的最新冲突开始以来，在加沙被杀害的217名巴勒斯坦人中，至少有63名儿童。在以色列方面，有12人被哈马斯火箭弹炸死，除一人外，其余均为平民，包括一名5岁男孩。
以色列说，它尽一切努力防止平民伤亡，包括发出警告，让人们撤离即将被袭击的建筑。哈马斯向以色列发射了数百枚火箭，其中大部分被反导弹防御系统拦截，以色列军方也对加沙的数百个地点进行了打击，那里约有200万人生活在拥挤的城市结构中。
加沙社交媒体上的视频显示，来自家庭的幸存者悲痛欲绝。
“他们是四个人!他们在哪?四!”一位父亲在得知他的四个孩子都被杀后，在医院外痛哭。另一张照片显示，一个小男孩尖叫着“爸爸”，他跑到送葬队伍的前面，那里的人们正抬着他父亲的尸体去参加葬礼。
周日早些时候，在以色列对加沙市中心进行大规模轰炸袭击后，伊什孔塔纳一家被埋在他们家的瓦砾下，以色列称这次袭击的目标是哈马斯隧道网络。罢工来得毫无预兆。
里亚德·伊什孔塔纳(Riad Ishkontana)向美联社(Associated Press)讲述了他是如何被埋在废墟下五个小时的，被压在一大块混凝土下面，无法触及他的妻子和五个孩子。
“我在废墟下听着他们的声音。我听到达娜和赞恩在喊，‘爸爸!“爸爸，”在他们的声音消失之前，然后我意识到他们已经死了，”他说，指的是他的两个孩子。
他说，在他获救并被送往医院后，家人和工作人员尽可能向他隐瞒真相。“我了解到他们一个接一个的死亡，”他说。最后，苏西被活着带进来，是他三个女儿和两个儿子中第二大的，也是唯一的幸存者。
儿科医生祖海尔·阿尔-加罗博士说，虽然在废墟下的七个小时里，她只有有限的身体瘀伤，但这位年轻的女孩处于“严重的创伤和休克状态”。他说，由于持续的战斗，医院无法为她提供所需的心理治疗。
“她已经陷入了深深的抑郁，”他说。他周二说，直到今天，她才在被允许短暂离开医院并看望她的堂兄弟后吃了点东西。
当她的父亲对美联社说话时，苏西坐在他旁边的床上，沉默着，研究着房间里人们的脸，但很少进行眼神交流。当被问及长大后想做什么时，她拒绝了。当她的父亲开始为她回答，说她想成为一名医生时，女孩开始大声哭泣。
42岁的伊什孔塔纳(Ishkontana)最近因为冠状病毒封锁而不再做服务员，他说苏西聪明、精通技术，喜欢智能手机和平板电脑。“她探索它们，她比我更有经验处理它们，”他说。他说，她也喜欢学习，会把她的所有兄弟姐妹召集到一个“班级”里，扮演他们老师的角色。
伊什孔塔纳斯只是那天被摧毁的一个家庭。
以色列军方表示，周日的袭击目标是加沙城下的哈马斯隧道。战机轰炸了阿尔瓦达街，这是该市最繁忙的商业大道之一，一排排公寓楼，底层有商店、面包店、咖啡馆和电子商店。
三栋建筑倒塌，至少三个家庭的多人丧生。总共有42人死亡，包括10名儿童和16名妇女。
以色列军方发言人乔纳森·康里克斯中校称导致死亡的情况“不正常”。他说，在一个地方，空袭导致隧道坍塌，房屋随之倒塌，“这造成了大量平民伤亡，这不是目标。”
他说，军方正在分析发生了什么，并“试图重新校准”其军械，以防止再次发生。
他说，针对隧道网络的轰炸行动将扩大到加沙的更多地区，军方将尽可能击中道路下的隧道，而不是房屋下的隧道。
以色列和哈马斯曾在2009年、2012年和2014年爆发过类似的冲突，每次都造成了严重的破坏
挪威难民委员会表示，到目前为止，在这场战争中被杀害的11名儿童一直在通过其心理社会项目帮助儿童应对创伤，这表明儿童是如何反复成为暴力的受害者的。其中有苏西的妹妹，8岁的达娜。
难民委员会地区负责人Hozayfa Yazji说，“这是他们中的许多人第四次在自己的家园周围遭受轰炸”。
当炸弹落下时，加沙的父母拼命试图让他们惊恐的孩子平静下来，告诉最小的孩子这只是烟花，或者试图摆出一副开心的样子。
他说，暴力“当然会影响这些孩子的心理”。“我们正在期待...情况会更糟，更多的孩子需要更多的支持。”
难民委员会与加沙的118所学校合作，通过其“更好的学习计划”惠及75，000多名学生。该项目训练教师处理受创伤的儿童，并组织有趣的锻炼来缓解压力。它还对儿童进行家访以提供帮助。
难民委员会与加沙的118所学校合作，通过其“更好的学习计划”惠及75，000多名学生。该项目训练教师处理受创伤的儿童，并组织有趣的锻炼来缓解压力。它还对儿童进行家访以提供帮助。
安理会秘书长扬·埃格兰呼吁立即停火，他说:“放过这些孩子和他们的家人。现在停止轰炸他们。”
但他说，从长远来看，“如果我们要避免更多的创伤和儿童死亡”，结束对加沙的封锁和对巴勒斯坦领土的占领是必要的。
Gaza children bearing the brunt in Israel-Hamas conflict
GAZA CITY, Gaza -- Suzy Ishkontana hardly speaks or eats. It’s been two days since the 7-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of what was once her family's home, destroyed amid a barrage of Israeli airstrikes. She spent hours buried in the wreckage as her siblings and mother died around her.
Children are being subjected to extensive trauma in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip. For some, it’s trauma they’ve seen repeatedly throughout their short lives.
This is the fourth time in 12 years Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers have gone to war. Each time, Israel has unleashed heavy airstrikes at the densely populated Gaza Strip as it vows to stop Hamas rocket barrages launched toward Israel.
According to Gazahealthofficials, at least 63 children are among the 217 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza since the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas began on May 10. On the Israeli side, 12 people have been killed by Hamas rockets, all but one of them civilians, including a 5-year-old boy.
Israel says it does everything it can to prevent civilian casualties, including issuing warnings for people to evacuate buildings about to be struck. As Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, most of them intercepted by anti-missile defenses, Israel’s military has pounded hundreds of sites in Gaza, where some 2 million people live squeezed into a tight urban fabric.
Videos on social media from Gaza have shown the grief of survivors from families wiped out in an instant.
“They were four! Where are they? Four!” wailed one father outside a hospital after learning all four of his children had been killed. Another showed a young boy screaming “Baba,” as he ran to the front of the funeral procession where men were carrying his father’s body to burial.
The Ishkontana family was buried under the rubble of their home early Sunday, after massive bombing raids of downtown Gaza City that Israel said were targeting a Hamas tunnel network. The strikes came without warning.
Riad Ishkontana recounted to The Associated Press how he was buried for five hours under the wreckage, pinned under a chunk of concrete, unable to reach his wife and five children.
“I was listening to their voices beneath the rubble. I heard Dana and Zain calling, ‘Dad! Dad!’ before their voices faded and then I realized they had died,” he said, referring to two of his children.
After he was rescued and taken to the hospital, he said, family and staff hid the truth from him as long as they could. “I learned about their deaths one after another,” he said. Finally, Suzy was brought in alive, the second-oldest of his three daughters and two sons, and the only survivor.
Though she had only limited physical bruising from her seven hours under the rubble, the young girl was in “severe trauma and shock,” said pediatrician Dr. Zuhair Al-Jaro. The hospital was unable to get her the psychological treatment she needs because of the ongoing fighting, he said.
“She has entered into a deep depression,” he said. Only today, he said Tuesday, did she eat something after she was allowed briefly outside the hospital and saw her cousins.
As her father spoke to the AP, Suzy sat on the bed next to him, silent and studying the faces of the people in the room but rarely making eye contact. When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she turned away. When her father started to answer for her, saying she wanted to become a doctor, the girl began sobbing loudly.
Ishkontana, 42, who recently stopped working as a waiter because of coronavirus lockdowns, said Suzy is smart and tech-savvy and loves smartphones and tablets. “She explores them, she has more experience dealing with them than I do,” he said. She also loves studying and would gather all her siblings into a play “class,” taking the role of their teacher, he said.
The Ishkontanas were just one family destroyed that day.
The strikes Sunday targeted Hamas tunnels running under Gaza City, the Israeli military said. The warplanes pounded al-Wahda Street, one of the city's busiest commercial avenues, lined with apartment buildings with stores, bakeries, cafes and electronics shops on the ground floors.
Three buildings collapsed, and multiple people from at least three families were killed. In all 42 people died, including 10 children and 16 women.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, called the situation that led to the deaths “abnormal.” He said in one location the airstrikes caused a tunnel to collapse, bringing houses down with it, “and that caused a large amount of civilian casualties, which were not the aim.”
He said the military was analyzing what happened and “attempting to recalibrate” its ordnance to prevent a reoccurrence.
He said the bombing campaign targeting tunnel networks would be expanded to more areas of Gaza and that the military tries when possible to hit tunnels under roads rather than under houses.
Israel and Hamas have fought similar conflicts in 2009, 2012 and 2014, each time wreaking heavy destruction
The Norwegian Refugee Council said that 11 of the children killed so far in this war had been going through its psycho-social programs helping children deal with trauma — a sign of how children repeatedly are victimized by the violence. Among them was 8-year-old Dana, Suzy's sister.
“It’s the fourth time for many of them to experience” bombardment around their homes, said Hozayfa Yazji, the refugee council area field manager.
Parents in Gaza desperately try to calm their terrified children, as bombs rain down, telling the youngest ones it’s just fireworks or trying to put up a cheerful front.
The violence “will of course affect the psychology of these kids,” he said. “We are expecting that ... the situation will be much worse and more children will need more support.”
The refugee council works with 118 schools in Gaza, reaching more than 75,000 students through its Better Learning Program. The program trains teachers to deal with traumatized children and organizes fun exercises to relieve stress. It also does home-checks on children to provide help.
The refugee council works with 118 schools in Gaza, reaching more than 75,000 students through its Better Learning Program. The program trains teachers to deal with traumatized children and organizes fun exercises to relieve stress. It also does home-checks on children to provide help.
The council’s secretary-general, Jan Egeland, called for an immediate cease-fire, saying, “Spare these children and their families. Stop bombing them now.”
But he said, longer term, an end to the blockade on Gaza and occupation of Palestinian territory is necessary “if we are to avoid more trauma and death among children.”
