IRON SHIELDS AND BROKEN CHILDHOODS: ISRAEL’S ADVANCED MILITARY SUPREMACY AND THE SYSTEMATIC DESTRUCTION OF GAZA’S CHILDREN

Abstract

This paper examines how the technological military dominance of Israel has become destructive to the lives of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Based on the Human Security framework and Child Rights Theory, it examines the application of high-tech warfare technologies (autonomous use of weapons, surveillance, etc.) used as part of the aggressive approach to security, which actively destroys the prerequisites of a safe and dignified childhood. The study, based on the recent reports and the news coverage alongside the record of the number of victims, shows that rather than the minimum loss of civilian lives, Israeli advanced war techniques continue to produce a disproportionate amount of violence, substantive loss, and psychological trauma among the youngest generation of Gaza. The findings also contain the revelations that the systematic harm is not only perpetuated by the domestic Israeli military ideology but also by Israel strong international arms trade -globally networked system of weapons imports, exports, technological cooperation and arrangement that makes Gaza an experimental ground of sophisticated warfare and institutionalizes child endangerment in a transnational military-industrial complex. Israel’s technological advantage and foreign (military) aid, precision strikes, and a blockade have transformed Gaza into a cemetery of children, a severe violation of basic provisions of international humanitarian law. The paper ends by providing recommendations to enhance global responsibility, govern the use of AI in the military, and protect humanitarian assistance and human-centric recovery in the areas of conflict.