Bombing hits children the hardest

BEIRUT - About 55 percent of all casualties at the Beirut Government University Hospital are children of 15 years of age or less, hospital records show."This is worse than during the Lebanese civil war," Bilal Masri, assistant director of the hospital, one of Beirut's largest, told IPS Monday. Not only are most of the patients children, but many of the injured have been brought in serious condition, he said. "Now we have a 30 percent fatality rate here in Beirut. That means that 30 percent of everyone hit by Israeli bombs are dying. It is a catastrophe."
People are furious about the high number of casualties among children.. Mariam Mattar, a 50-year-old mother sitting on a mattress in a park in central Beirut along with hundreds of other refugees from southern Beirut said no home there was safe. "We left our house because they are bombing everything in the civilian neighbourhoods," she told IPS. "They are killing all our children. What human would ever do this kind of thing." They had moved to central Beirut because it was safer. But living out in the open has meant another kind of hell. "We are without our shoes even. We are living in the dirt. Would Israel allow her children to live like this," she asked, pointing at her bare feet. She pulled a little boy towards her and said, "What have these children done? The other children who didn't escape are rotting under the destroyed buildings as we speak." Israeli war planes roared above as several refugees spoke with IPS. "We are very afraid from all the bombings," Ramadan, a 12-year-old boy in the park said. "I hope they stop. This is all we want now.."
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