NYT publishes frontpage collage of Palestinian children killed by Israel's Gaza strikes

The names and photographs of children killed in Israel's recent strikes on Gaza were published on the front page of Friday's edition of the The New York Times, in a move that has drawn praise from Palestine activists, as well as criticism of the paper's Middle East coverage.

The US daily newspaper also published an extended online obituary of the children recently killed in Gaza and Israel.

At least 67 children under the age of 18 were killed in Gaza in what has been broadly seen as the worst escalation of violence by Israel since 2014.

Dozens of children, many of whom were under the age of 16, including several babies, were killed in aerial and ground bombardments by Israeli forces.

I would not have believed anyone if they had told me even just a month ago that any atrocity -no matter how evil- against the Palestinians would ever be the front page of the New York Times. Something has shifted. The truth is on the front-pages. https://t.co/2aKfTjX2V5

— Rami Ismail (رامي) (@tha_rami) May 28, 2021

Critics are citing Gaza’s child death toll as proof of disproportionate and indiscriminate violence towards Palestinians by Israel.According to the latest census records, Gaza is made up of approximately 43 per cent children under the age of 14, and approximately 22 per cent between the ages of 14 and 24, making the majority of Gazans children and young people.

The victims were in the middle of life when they were killed: Thirteen-year-old Hamada al -Emour and his ten-year-old cousin Ammar al-Emour had just finished getting haircuts when they were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Their father had witnessed their deaths. Thirteen-year-old Yahya Khalifa had been on a shop errand getting yogurt and ice cream for his family when he was killed by an Israeli airstrike.

Four brothers were killed: Amir Tanani, 6, Ahmad Tanani, 2, Ismail Tanani, 7, and Adham Tanani, 4.

Many babies were killed also, including six-month-old Ibrahim al-Rantisi and six-month-old Quasai al-Qawlaq and siblings.

Israel's army claims that its strikes are aimed at military targets and that it tries to avoid "collateral damage" but its bombs have fallen on densely populated residential areas and buildings where journalists, lawyers, and doctors work.

"People think there has to be some rationale," Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, told The New York Times, "but the bottom line is they want to inflict pain and suffering."

The NYT frontpage drew both praise and criticism, with some viewing the move as a much-need recognition of the devastating 

Others, meanwhile, highlighted the newspaper's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict, which has been viewed as biased towards Israel.

The NYT’s has participated in shaping and spreading anti-Palestinian racism and Israeli propaganda for decades. This will not be reversed by an obituary that depoliticizes genocide.

And btw, when we mourn, we mourn all of our martyrs, not just our children.

— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) May 29, 2021

"The NYT’s [sic] has participated in shaping and spreading anti-Palestinian racism and Israeli propaganda for decades. This will not be reversed by an obituary that depoliticizes genocide," wrote Sheikh Jarrah resident Mohammed El-Kurd on Twitter. 

"And btw, when we mourn, we mourn all of our martyrs, not just our children," he added.