By David K. Shipler
In a grisly coincidence, the UN
within 24 hours has documented two outrages of the Israel-Gaza war that will
permanently scar the lives of those who survive: Sexual crimes by Hamas, which
probably continue against young Israeli women who are still hostages. And severe
malnutrition among tens of thousands of Palestinian children, some at critical
stages of brain development.
A team headed by the UN Special
Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict confirmed most earlier reports of
sexual assaults by Hamas fighters who invaded Israel from Gaza on October 7.
But in addition, the UN task force found “clear and convincing information that
sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman, and
degrading treatment occurred against some women and children during their time
in captivity and has reasonable grounds to believe that this violence may be
ongoing.” The team did not say, but everyone knows, that the deep trauma
suffered by such victims is likely to be ongoing as well, perhaps lifelong.
In what might aptly be called divine
injustice, the hostages taken October 7, and evidently still being held, include
seven young female soldiers from the Nahal Oz military base, an intelligence
hub. Women agents there had picked up strong indicators of the coming Hamas
attack and repeatedly urged their male superior officers—in vain—to take
preventive action.
Whether the hostages are the same women
who sounded the alarm is not publicly known, but they are from the same unit. That
they should suffer such intimate brutality because they or their colleagues
were ignored ought to haunt the incompetent government of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and its somnolent security apparatus. Furthermore, Israeli
officials have reportedly worried that Hamas would rather kill the women than
release them to tell the world of their torment.
At the same time, the UN’s World Health
Organization has warned that famine is “almost inevitable,” and reported this
week that 10 children in northern Gaza had died of starvation. Israel’s
retaliatory strategy of cutting off Gaza’s two million Palestinians from most
supplies of food, water, electricity, and medical care has taken a severe toll
on health, even as sporadic, inadequate aid shipments and air drops have been
permitted. Eventually, famine and disease are expected to cause at least as
many casualties as the 30,000 deaths Hamas has reported from Israeli bombing
and ground fighting.
Here, too, the unseen impacts are
inevitable. Just as post-traumatic stress disorder is a lasting condition for survivors
of sexual torture, the cognitive damage to children suffering malnutrition is
likely to be lifelong. (Why this is not a routine part of the mainstream
media’s war reporting is surprising: Neuroscientists have researched it
extensively.)
At critical periods of brain development—especially
in last two trimesters of pregnancy and the first two to three years of
life—the inadequacy of certain nutrients can inhibit the creation of neurons
and synapses, of myelin sheaths and the neurological connections that are
essential to reasoning, learning, memory, and behavior in adulthood.
For at least half a century, scientists
have been documenting how the developing brain suffers from insufficient iron,
iodine, folate, zinc, calcium, magnesium, selenium, and various vitamins, all
found in balanced diets of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, and
dairy products. The finding is made in study after study, including the
succinct warning in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral
Pediatrics that, after age two, “the effects of malnutrition on stunting
may be irreversible, and some of the functional deficits may become permanent.”
Longitudinal studies have shown the
lifelong effects. Seventy-seven infants in Barbados, for example, hospitalized
with protein deficiency, then received nutritious food between the ages of one
and twelve. Nevertheless, in their thirties, they had compromised “verbal fluency,
working memory, processing speed, and visuospatial integration” compared to a
healthy group from the same classrooms.
Iron deficiency during pregnancy can cause
serious damage to the fetus, even if the child gets adequate iron later.
Without enough meat, poultry, fish, spinach, or beans, the mother and child can
suffer from anemia, which decreases the formation of the myelin sheath, whose
fatty matter insulates nerve cells and helps accelerate nerve conduction.
Insufficient iron affects the metabolism in the hippocampus, critical for
memory, and can lead to low birth rate, which is associated with cerebral palsy
and other neurological problems.
Studies following children who were anemic
as infants found that years later, in school, they scored lower in math,
written expression, motor functioning, spatial memory, and selective recall.
Then, too, hunger—or even the fear of
hunger—creates an additional layer of anxiety on top of the terrors of war.
Learning disabilities and mental health problems result. “Learning is a
discretionary activity, after you’re well-fed, warm, secure,” said Dr. Deborah
A. Frank, who founded a malnutrition clinic at the Boston Medical Center.
Persistent, elevated stress hormones have
an impact on the size and architecture of the developing brain, a group of scientists reported in 2016, “specifically the
amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.” Mental health implications
abound: people experiencing food insecurity alone, even without warfare,
display depression, PTSD, hopelessness, and suicidality.
All this is happening to innocent Palestinian children
in Gaza as a result of Israel’s draconian strategy. And that, in turn, is the
result of Hamas’s sadistic attacks on innocent Israelis, which struck the country
with a novel, pervasive fear of insecurity. And that, in turn is the result of
. . . You can spin back through the weary history of that tortured land and try
to find the original sin that caused it all. Or you can understand that every
effect there has a cause and no untanglement of cause and effect is feasible.
Then, having been foiled by history, you can look to
the future and understand that what lies ahead, damaged by the present, will effectively
continue the war’s harm for a generation or more—even if a total cease fire
were declared today.
