[War & Business] The "War of Cradles" Between Israel and Hamas

As the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas has continued for over a month, the death toll in the Gaza Strip has approached 9,500. Among them, 3,900 are children, accounting for a staggering 41% of the total deaths. Considering that the proportion of child fatalities in the Ukraine war is just over 5%, this is an enormous figure.

On the 30th of last month, a child and his father injured in an Israeli airstrike at a hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, are embracing each other. Rafah=Photo by AFP and Yonhap News

The overwhelming proportion of child deaths in the Gaza Strip is related to its high birth rate. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the total fertility rate in Gaza, as compiled by the United Nations (UN), was 3.02 in 2021, more than four times higher than that of South Korea. The population structure of Gaza also resembles a typical pre-modern pyramid shape, with children making up the majority of the population. The statement that one child dies every ten minutes is by no means an exaggeration.

The reason for Gaza’s high birth rate, despite periodic Israeli airstrikes causing chronic shortages of drinking water and food and an unemployment rate approaching 70%, in what is truly called a living hell, is the population competition with Israel. Since the end of the Fourth Middle East War in the 1970s, both Israel and Palestine have competitively encouraged childbirth, believing that having a larger population strengthens their claims to Palestinian territories.

As a result, Israel’s fertility rate remains very high compared to major developed countries, reaching 2.90. The international community has even coined the term “War of cradles” in the Middle East to describe this competition in birth rates and the ongoing sacrifices of children caught in the crossfire. Both sides have aggressively pursued policies to increase the number of children born to strengthen territorial claims and promote nationalism.

Ironically, the policy linking childbirth directly to territorial claims originated from the concept of ethnic living space, or “Lebensraum,” advocated by Nazi Germany. The country of Jews who survived the Holocaust under Nazi Germany is now implementing policies strikingly similar to those of Nazi Germany itself.

In this cradle war created by adults, even children who are lucky enough to survive the battlefield suffer severe trauma. Particularly, the hostility and anger toward the opposing country, nurtured during childhood, never easily fade. For survivors, reconciling with the enemy who killed their parents, brothers, and sisters right before their eyes is virtually impossible.

Hardliners in Israel and Hamas exploit the intense hostility and anger harbored by survivors as a political base. By exposing scenes of children’s deaths and massacres through social media, they amplify and reproduce this anger to facilitate the long-term rule of hardline factions. Critics argue that they also use the war triggered by this anger as leverage to justify the need for national unity, thereby consolidating authoritarian regimes.

Ultimately, unless this fundamental tragedy known as the War of cradles disappears, no matter how many troops the Israeli military mobilizes to eliminate Hamas, the likelihood of second and third Hamas groups emerging remains high. Before the “two-state solution” proposed by the U.S. and the West as a mediation plan, the political dynamics exploiting the War of cradles on both sides must be broken to open the door to genuine peace negotiations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.