A World Vision sponsored child is dead and another is in critical condition in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Nine-year-old Mubarak Salim Almalalha was among eight people killed last month in Rafah, when an Israeli tank fired into a crowd of protesters. It took a week for World Vision staff in Gaza to confirm the boy's death because of the closure of a number of Rafah neighbourhoods by Israeli troops and the ensuing insecurity.

The shelling took place on May 19 during a march by Rafah residents to protest the actions of the Israeli military in Rafah. Reports indicate that children made up at least half of the crowd. A 13-year-old sponsored child sustained abdominal injuries and is in critical condition in hospital.

Later that day, the UN Security Council passed a resolution condemning the killing of civilians in Rafah. International law dictates that both Israel and the Palestinian Authority are responsible for providing protection to children caught in this conflict. Israel also carries specific obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention as an occupying power. As well, the international community bears responsibility for providing protection to children when their own governments cannot or will not.

Late last year, World Vision published Who Will Wipe Away Their Tears? to highlight the tragic vulnerability of Palestinian and Israeli children to the ongoing conflict. The report documents the deaths of 549 children killed from the onset of the current Intifada on Sept. 30, 2000, through to the end of July 2003. Since then, the number of childhood casualties has grown to 681, including 12 children killed in Rafah since May 13. In total, 571 Palestinian children and 110 Israeli children have been killed since the start of the Intifada.

One of the children profiled in Who Will Wipe Away Their Tears? - Tha'er Al Howt - was also a World Vision sponsored child from Rafah. Shortly before his death, Tha'er pleaded, "I want to be able to do things that kids my age do in other countries. I would like to feel safe, rather than feeling pain and seeing destruction."

"Children like Tha'er and Mubarak should not only feel safe, they should be safe. These two boys and the hundreds of other children should still be alive today," said World Vision Canada president Dave Toycen after learning of Mubarak's tragic death. "The Israeli and Palestinian leadership need to understand that even one child's death in an armed conflict is too many, and they must take urgent and significant steps to protect the rights of all children on both sides of the conflict."

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian relief and development organization providing assistance to more than 85 million people in more than 90 countries.

Click here to view the pdf  Who Will Wipe Away Their Tears?  

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian relief and development organization active in more than 90 countries around the world, providing help to more than 85 million people each year.