Children do not start wars or plan acts of terrorism, but too often they are their greatest victims, as the conflict engulfing Israel and Gaza so painfully demonstrates.
This is a struggle fought out on a battlefield with no distinction between civilian and military theatres, and which is now taking place mostly in Gaza, where Hamas is embedded in towns and villages and where a million young people under 18 form nearly half the population. There are few wars in history in which children have constituted such a high proportion of the people most at risk.
