The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the international community and the American people to address a new report by Save the Children that up to 21,000 children are missing in the chaos of the war in Gaza, “many trapped beneath rubble, detained, buried in unmarked graves, or lost from their families.”
[NOTE: CAIR is now using the term “Israeli-U.S.” to describe war crimes in Gaza because the Biden administration’s ongoing provision of political support, money and weapons to the Israeli government despite President Biden’s violated “red lines” makes the U.S. intentionally complicit in the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians. SEE: The Night Won’t End: Biden’s War on Gaza.]
“It is nearly impossible to collect and verify information under the current conditions in Gaza, but at least 17,000 children are believed to be unaccompanied and separated and approximately 4,000 children are likely missing under the rubble, with an unknown number also in mass graves. Others have been forcibly disappeared, including an unknown number detained and forcibly transferred out of Gaza, their whereabouts unknown to their families amidst reports of ill-treatment and torture.”
Separately, the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees warned that people in Gaza are in “a living hell, a nightmare from which they cannot wake.” “Children are dying of malnutrition and dehydration, while food and clean water wait in trucks,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.
Israel, with the complicity of the Biden administration, has already slaughtered more than 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and more than 14,000 children. Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed 54 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024 alone.
Over the weekend, CAIR condemned what it called the latest Israeli-U.S. massacres of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. At least 42 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Saturday.
CAIR also condemned the use of a wounded Palestinian in the West Bank as a human shield. In a video published online, the injured man is shown placed on the hood of an Israeli military vehicle while driving through the Jabariya neighborhood of Jenin in the West Bank.
In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:
“The U.S.-backed mass slaughter of Palestinian children must be addressed by the world community and the American people, and those responsible must be held accountable by institutions upholding international law and justice. This genocide must end, and the Palestinian people must be treated as human beings, not animals to be slaughtered at will by a genocidal government, with the support of the Biden administration.”
Awad added that the vast majority of Americans support an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Last week, CAIR called on the Biden administration to condemn growing reports of the systematic torture of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces.
That call came after a Palestinian journalist from Gaza described the torture, abuse and rape that he and other detainees were subjected to at an Israeli detention camp.
CAIR also called on the Biden administration to demand that Israel’s far-right government explain why Dr. Iyad Rantisi died under interrogation a week after he was detained by Israeli intelligence services.
CAIR said the Biden administration must take “concrete action” following the release of a new United Nations report showing that Israel repeatedly violated the laws of war in its genocidal campaign targeting the Palestinian people and a statement by a UN official that Israeli war crimes amounted to an “extermination” campaign.
CAIR said that an Associated Press (AP) investigation showing that the far-right Israeli government’s attacks on Gaza have wiped out “entire Palestinian families” once again proves Israel’s genocidal intent.
CAIR condemned what it called the latest “Israeli war crimes of the day” after a UNICEF official said he witnessed the execution of two Palestinian fishermen by Israeli forces.
CAIR also condemned the apparent systematic destruction of housing, health facilities and water wells in Gaza by Israeli forces. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says less than one-third of health facilities are operational. The Palestine Red Crescent Society says 498 medical personnel have been killed by Israel. Video shows Israeli bulldozers demolishing homes west of Rafah that were already partially damaged by Israeli attacks.
CAIR condemned the malicious destruction by an Israeli soldier of a Gaza home shown in a video posted online.
CAIR also condemned the starvation death of Mustafa Hijazi, who reportedly died today as a result of the US-backed Israeli campaign of forced starvation, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. He was one of thousands of Gaza children starving because of the US-back Israeli genocide in Gaza. Israel has slaughtered more than 37,000 Gazans, mostly women and children.
CAIR welcomed US sanctions on an Israeli extremist group that blocked humanitarian aid from being sent to Gaza and urged the Biden administration to go further and sanction the Israeli government for its forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and its campaign of genocide.
SEE: Palestinian children battle a deadly foe in Gaza — starvation – NBC
CAIR also called on the Biden administration to stop enabling and backing the starvation of children in Gaza by the far-right Israeli government.
SEE: CAIR Calls on Biden Admin to End Support for Starvation of Children in Gaza
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com