11 children killed by air strikes in Gaza were part of a trauma support program, organisation says

The Norwegian Refugee Council says it was helping 11 of the more than 60 children reported killed in Israeli air strikes cope with trauma from previous flares of violence.

L-R: Rula Mohammad al-Kawlak, 5, Dana Riad Ishkantna, 9, and Yara Mohammad al-Kawlak, 9, are among those said to have been killed in recent Israeli attacks Source: Supplied/DCIP/NRC

Nearly a dozen children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza over the past two weeks were part of a rehabilitation program helping them cope with trauma from past escalations in the long-running conflict, a refugee advocacy group says. 

The Norwegian Refugee Council says 11 of the more than 60 children reported killed in Israeli air strikes since fighting recently escalated were taking part in its Better Learning Programme, which it says reaches 75,000 students across 118 schools in the Gaza Strip. 

The 11 children were all aged between 5 and 15 years of age and died at their homes, some alongside relatives while having lunch outside, the NRC says.

NRC's secretary-general Jan Egeland said the group was “devastated” to learn some of the children it was helping were killed “while they were at home and thought they were safe".

"They are now gone, killed with their families, buried with their dreams and the nightmares that haunted them,” he said in a statement.

He called for Israel to spare children and their families, saying: "Their homes must not be targets. Schools must not be targets".

A significant escalation in fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants began on 10 May, with attacks from both sides claiming lives.

Since then, 230 Palestinians have been killed, including 65 children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Another 12 people have been killed in Israel, including two children, according to Israeli police.

Israel's army says it takes all steps to avoid harming civilians, including by phoning residents to warn them of imminent strikes, and blames Hamas for placing weapons and military sites in densely populated areas. 

It says Hamas and other Islamist armed groups in Gaza have fired 4,070 rockets towards Israel, the overwhelming majority of them intercepted by its Iron Dome air defences.

United States President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a "significant de-escalation" in the conflict on Thursday, as both sides traded fire amid renewed calls for a ceasefire.

A senior official from Hamas told Lebanese TV he was expecting a ceasefire "within a day or two" on "the basis of mutual agreement."

With AFP.