South Africa has called on the United Nations to deploy a rapid protection force to protect the civilian population of Gaza amid reports about a large number of children being killed there as the Israeli forces heightens attacks on the Hamas-ruled enclave. “South Africa echoes the UN General Assembly’s resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate opening of a humanitarian corridor to provide food, medical supplies and fuel,” the country’s Department of International Relations and Cooperations said in a statement on Monday.
It said that South Africa also “calls on the United Nations to deploy a rapid protection force to protect the civilian population from further bombardment.” “All countries genuinely committed to a rules-based system underpinned by international law must act immediately. South Africa calls for the International community to hold Israel accountable for breaches of International Law,” it added. ‘Save the Children’, a humanitarian organisation for children, has reported that the number of children killed in Gaza over the last three weeks has surpassed the annual number of children killed across all the world’s conflict zones since 2019.
Since October 7, when Israel commenced retaliatory attacks after Hamas attacked and abducted some Israeli civilians, more than 3,500 Palestinian children are reported to have been killed. According to the NGO, there may be more than 1,000 more children who have been reported missing still lying in the rubble of demolished buildings.
“All of these children killed since 7 October are non-combatants and those responsible for their deaths must be held accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity and in the case of the scale of deaths in Gaza and increasingly in the West Bank, the crime of genocide must also be investigated,” the South African Ministry said.