Children in Gaza -- could the tragedy have been prevented?
....and other child welfare news for November 14, 2023.
First up, let’s talk about the situation in Gaza. NPR had a report yesterday from Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders or MSF), which has staff working at Al-Shifa Hospital there. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have surrounded the hospital, which has a neonatal unit, and there is no fuel, food, or water. According to a statement from MSF Canada, there are 600 inpatients at the hospital, including 37 babies, and many will die if these dire circumstances continue.
This is a horrible, terrible tragedy that will result in more deaths of the innocent. What could have been done to prevent it?
IDF surrounded the hospital because, it claims, Hamas has its command and control centers in and under the hospital. What’s the evidence for that? According to today’s New York Times, there’s plenty. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2006, and shortly thereafter Hamas started its campaign of hiding in and under hospitals. Journalists have documented as far back as 2008 that Hamas was using the Al-Shifa facility for its own purposes. The NYT reports that in 2014, Amnesty International confirmed that Hamas used parts of the hospital as a torture chamber for prisoners and suspected Israeli collaborators. Intelligence sources are confident that Hamas has a headquarters located in the tunnels it’s built under the hospital. As one veteran NYT journalist said, “Hamas has a long history of placing its operations in hospitals, mosques and other civilian areas so that Israel must risk killing innocent bystanders — and thereby damage its reputation — to attack Hamas fighters.”
All of this raises the question: if these allegations are true that Hamas has had bases in and under Al-Shifa (and other hospitals in Gaza) all this time, why have international aid organizations working there previously not raised the hue and cry?
MSF, which has been working in Gaza for many decades, is “calling on all parties to the conflict to ensure the safety of civilians, medical facilities, and personnel,” it says in a recent statement. “Hospitals must remain a sanctuary for people seeking care.” That’s all well and good now, but a hospital can’t ever be a sanctuary for the innocent if the local government is allowed to build and maintain a military base/command center/interrogation center in its midst. Did MSF’s doctors and staff working in these hospitals just turn a blind eye and hope for the best?
What about child protection organizations that have personnel in Gaza? Save the Children’s child safeguarding policy requires reporting of dangers to children, and its representatives “are expected to create and proactively maintain an environment that aims to prevent and deter any actions and omissions, whether deliberate or inadvertent, that place children at risk of any kind of Child Abuse.” What did its personnel see? Did they speak up about the dangers of vulnerable children and staff becoming human shields? UNICEF and other UN organizations are now calling on the IDF to respect the laws of war that make hospitals a safe sanctuary in times of conflict. What did UN personnel know about Hamas’ use of these facilities? Did they ask questions: “Hey, whatcha doing digging tunnels under that children’s hospital?” Did they raise concerns that Hamas was setting vulnerable and sick adults and children for a disaster?
I’ve written in the past about the fact that the importance of having child protection policies pales in comparison to the importance of building an organizational culture that encourages and requires staff to report behavior that puts children at risk. The problem is that if your team members in the field don’t report risky behavior, that behavior becomes just part of the norm, and the culture becomes one in which abuse is much more likely to occur.
I wonder if that’s what’s happened with well-intended organizations working in Gaza. It’s easy, I imagine, to justify to oneself that it’s better (and easier!) to keep providing medical care and other services to children than raise local government wrongdoing that might get your organization kicked out of the country. While that attitude may have seemed necessary before, the failure to stand up to Hamas’ policies has resulted in the deaths of the very people who most need those services and is likely to result in many more deaths before this war is over.
I hope, once this war concludes, that those who remained silent while Hamas built its terror infrastructure will be held accountable for the resulting deaths of children.
In other news:
A report from Pennsylvania discusses the value of congregate care for children with high behavioral needs.
Maine CPS workers say they are working in a broken system.
More on how lawyers want the federal court to take over Texas’ child protection system.
Children growing up under Hamas control have suffered severe trauma.
Like other states, Maryland is struggling with the unintended consequences of juvenile justice reform.
Here’s a story on high child welfare caseloads in Nebraska.
States lose track of foster youth. Here’s the story.
There’s more news — I haven’t even started to dive into the Maya Kowalski verdict — but I’ve got to get on a plane to Peru, where I’ll be volunteering a few days with Kids Alive International. We’re working with the courts and prosecutors to improve the way the system helps child sex abuse victims, and this week they’re celebrating the opening of a new child forensic interviewing facility. If you like this column, please consider supporting this effort.
Thanks!