8 | APRIL 25 • 2024 
J
N

opinion

Why Does Hamas Not Care 
About Gaza’s Children?
I

sraeli children’s safety 
does not seem to 
preoccupy the world. 
This may be understandable. 
Israel is a 
militarily 
powerful 
country and 
should manage 
to protect its 
own kids. Why 
should the 
world worry?
On the other hand, 
Palestinians, and especially 
children in the Gaza Strip — 
the manifest “underdogs” — 
evoke a tremendous amount 
of compassion and empathy. 
The world is in agony 
about their suffering. Their 
images haunt the collective 
consciousness like almost no 
other children around the 
world.
It would seem logical then 
that compassionate people 
who so worry about Gaza’s 
children would want the 
defeat of Hamas.
So, why don’t they want 
to free them from a suicidal 
indoctrination that teaches 
them to sacrifice their 
lives and to become jihadist/
suicide bombers from a 
very tender age? Why do 
they allow these children 
to be robbed of their 
innocence and be taught 
hatred as a desired menu for 
life? Why not fight for them 
to be able to have a normal 
childhood, to play with toy 
guns and learn life-building 
skills?

Why is the world not 
demanding that Hamas take 
the children and women 
with them in the more 
than 300 miles of tunnels 
to protect them from the 
Israeli missiles they have 
provoked? Hamas has 
risked the destruction of its 
territory and population by 
launching missiles on Israel, 
committing such acts of 
terror that demand reprisals 
and promising many more.
Why is Hamas not con-
demned and ostracized by 
Western media, academia 
and international bodies for 
committing war crimes by 
using their own children as 
human shields, as well as 
risking their lives when they 
send them out to spy or plant 
bombs on enemy tanks?
Or do they feel that 
Hamas owns its population’s 
children and thus has 
the right to use them as 

they wish — to risk and 
sacrifice their lives? Does 
such ownership allow them 
to promote the belief that 
the most honorable way to 
ensure one’s family’s financial 
viability and subsequent 
place in heaven is to kill as 
many Jews as possible? Is this 
the best future for a child?
Why have Gaza children 
and women not been allowed 
to escape the battle zones 
and be temporary refugees 
to save their lives, like other 
countries at war were able 
to do?
Egypt and other Arab 
and Gulf countries have 
understandably refused to 
allow entry of a population 
trained to destabilize their 
countries. But what about 
shelter for women and 
children in Africa, Europe 
or even just in huge boats on 
the Gaza coast?
There would be no 

humanitarian crisis, no 
civilians killed, and the 
war would have been 
over long ago. The houses 
booby-trapped with guns 
and explosives that were 
destroyed can eventually 
be rebuilt like normal safe 
homes.
Compassionate people, 
countries and international 
organizations that have 
shut their eyes to the 
incredible cruelty toward 
these children must dig deep 
into their hearts and figure 
out to which cause they have 
been willing to sacrifice 
the lives of Gaza kids.
Having an opportunity 
to blame the Jewish 
state cannot justify such 
blindness or callousness. A 
whole generation has been 
brainwashed and cultivated 
in the glory of death. It has 
been open knowledge from 
the beginning.
It is time to care about 
these kids truly — and not 
only during times of war. 
They need a real childhood. 
They need their innocence. 
They need their spiritual 
salvation and idealism to be 
more than hatred, killing and 
getting killed. Can people 
overcome their hatred of the 
Jews enough to save Gaza 
and its children? 

Gina Ross, MFCC, is the founder/

president of the International Trauma-

Healing Institutes in the United States 

and Israel, and co-founder of a Trauma 

Center in Jerusalem.

Gina Ross
JNS.org

Palestinian women and children in Rafah, the southernmost city in the 
Gaza Strip, April 4, 2024.

PHOTO BY ABED RAHIM KHATIB/FLASH90

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