In Pictures: Children in Conflict and War Zones

In Pictures | On International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, pictures of children in conflict.

Palestinian children hold guns as they celebrate with others what they said was a victory over Israel, following a ceasefire in Gaza City August 26, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

Tell her it’s a game

Tell her it’s serious

But don’t frighten her

Don’t tell her they’ll kill her

Tell her it’s important to be quiet

— Seven Jewish Children, Caryl Churchill

The child who speaks the above lines, is one of the seven child characters in Caryl Churchill’s play Seven Jewish Children. Set in the backdrop of the continuing Israel-Palestine conflict, the play is not only evocative of the brutalities of war, but also puts them through the perspective of children, told as words of advice given to them.

The United Nations (UN) observes every June 4 as The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. Founded to commemorate victims of the 1982 Lebanon War, its purpose expanded to “acknowledge the pain suffered by children throughout the world”, after an emergency special session of the UN Assembly on the question of Palestine in 1982, citing the sufferings of Palestinian children caught in the conflict.

33 years down the line there has been fresh attacks on Palestine, fresh casualties, an alarming number of which are children. 140 children died at the heinous attack on a school in Peshawar, while over 10,000 children have been killed in the Syrian unrest.

We look back at a few faces of innocence, marked by the shockingly cavalier barbarity of war and conflict.

A mother mourns her son Mohammed Ali Khan, 15, a student who was killed during an attack by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School, at her house in Peshawar, December 16, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

An injured girl reacts during what activists said were air strikes by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad, in the Bab al-Hadid district of Aleppo, November 30, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

An injured boy reacts next to other injured civilians at a shelter after what activists said were airstrikes by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus, February 9, 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

Children react after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad near the Syrian Arab Red Crescent center in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus May 6, 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

76 children from orphanages in Donetsk and Makeyevka in eastern Ukraine were sent to Kramatorsk due to fighting between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists in August last year. (Photo: Reuters)

A girl from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing the violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province August 13, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

A Palestinian boy practises his Parkour skills near the ruins of houses, which witnesses said were destroyed during a seven-week Israeli offensive, in the Shejaia neighborhood east of Gaza City October 1, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

A 15-year-old rebel soldier of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) inserts bullets into the clip of his rifle near a military base in Kokang region March 11, 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

Children ride on the back of a pick-up truck with their luggage as they flee Saudi-led air strikes in Sanaa, Yemen, on April 6, 2015. (Photo: Reuters)