Child killers: From Herod to Hitler and Netanyahu

Killing infants by paranoid tyrants to eliminate their perceived future enemies is a recurring theme in both mythology and history, across time and space. The surprisingly similar narratives of King Herod’s attempts to kill the infant Jesus in the Christian tradition and King Kamsa attempting to murder the infant Krishna in the Hindu tradition serve as profound archetypes of human cruelty, state power and existential fear. In both stories, the powerful, insecure rulers receive prophesies that a newborn child will grow up to overthrow their regimes or bring about their ends. Driven by intense paranoia, Herod and Kamsa embark upon a frenzied attempt to kill the infants to eliminate their perceived threats. Herod orders the slaughter of all male infants in Bethlehem and its vicinity (the Massacre of the Innocents). Kamsa orders his demons, notably Putana, to systematically kill all male newborns across the kingdom of Bhoja.

A United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice S Muralidhar, former Chief Justice of Orissa, has now revealed shocking details of deliberate and selective mass killing of Palestinian children by Israeli forces in the ongoing war. It has been found that at least 20,179 Palestinian children were killed between October 2023 and October 2025, accounting for nearly 30% of all fatalities. Over 44,000 children were injured. The landmark report found evidence of systemic attacks on schools, hospitals, and orphanages. It detailed instances of snipers, drone strikes, and the torture of minors in detention. According to the report, the destruction of children's health, education, and development is irreversible, and it concluded that these systemic actions constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The Israeli actions also constituted the 1948 UN Convention against Genocide. Israel refused to cooperate with the inquiry despite the Commission’s 13 requests for information and access, and has since issued an 18-page rebuttal accusing the Commission of bias.

Israel’s atrocities against Palestinian children are ironic because the Jewish children were the worst victims of the most barbaric cruelties perpetrated by Nazi Germany under Hitler. About 1.5 million children were among the six million Jews butchered by the barbaric regime of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Among those exterminated in mass during the Holocaust in concentration camps like Auschwitz were not just Jews but also ethnic minorities like the Roma and disabled children.

A summary of the report titled “The essence of childhood has been destroyed” mentioned the deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian children, including post-ceasefire, since the October 2025 Gaza peace plan. The Commission observed a sharp increase in violence perpetrated by members of Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Children were subjected to torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, particularly during mass arrests and in detention. It analysed the pattern of Israel’s targeting of critical infrastructure essential to children, such as healthcare facilities and its short- to long-term consequences, as well as the impact of reproductive violence on newborns, resulting in poor neonatal health and birthing outcomes; attacks on orphanages and schools, impacting the loss of care for orphans and unaccompanied children, and inducing academic harm and learning disruptions for children, respectively. The Commission examined the impact of the conditions of life imposed by Israel in Gaza, resulting in preventable mortality of children, exacerbating morbidity, and serious mental trauma from the relentless and widespread attacks by Israel over two years, collectively revealing severe, multi-layered harm to Palestinian children’s survival, health, and development. Further, the Commission examines how Israeli soldiers mock and weaponise symbols of childhood in Gaza, raising ethical, disciplinary and legal questions about the conduct of the Israeli security forces during the ground invasion of Gaza. Judge Florence Mumba (Zambia) and human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti (Australia) were the other members of the Commission appointed by Ambassador Jurg Lauber (Switzerland), the President of the UN Human Rights Council.

Nazis had targeted children not for their actions, location, or political allegiance, but for their biological identity. The regime viewed them as future generations of a racial enemy that had to be entirely eradicated to secure the "Aryan" race.

The murderous methods employed included sending children to gas chambers, mass shootings, forced starvation and medical experimentation. As many as 5,000 to 8,000 children with physical and intellectual disabilities were exterminated by doctors who starved them by giving lethal overdoses of medicine in special "children's wards" in concentration camps. Children, particularly thousands of twins, were subjected to horrifying medical tests by Nazi doctors, such as Josef Mengele, named the “Angel of Death”, to study their genetic properties. These resulted in extreme pain, mutilation, and death. The Nazis stole thousands of non-German children from occupied territories—such as Poland and the Soviet Union—who fit the Nazi ideals of the "Aryan" race. Those who passed physical tests were placed with German families for indoctrination, while the rest were killed or sent to labour camps. Now read what's happening in Gaza, as revealed by various agencies, including the UN.

• Amputations Without Anaesthesia: Due to the systematic blockade of medical supplies and the destruction of the healthcare infrastructure, thousands of children have undergone complex limb amputations without basic painkillers or anaesthesia.
• Daily Maiming: Data compiled by [UN agencies indicates that more than 10 children in the Gaza Strip lose one or both legs each day, resulting in a generation facing permanent physical disabilities without access to rehabilitative prosthetics.
• Food Insecurity: Approximately 85% of children under five face severe food insecurity. Deliberate blockades on basic items such as fresh vegetables, milk, and eggs have caused widespread stunting and critical wasting.
• Epidemics: The destruction of a water filling station serving 250,000 people and a lack of purification chemicals have forced children to drink contaminated water. This has led to widespread outbreaks of acute watery diarrhea, scabies, lice, and severe respiratory infections.
• Displacement and Exposure: Children have been forced into a continuous cycle of displacement, fleeing to improvised tent cities. During seasonal winter storms, children have succumbed to hypothermia, and specific tragedies have occurred, such as a 7-year-old child drowning when an improvised camp flooded.
• Pest Attacks: In crowded tent camps, infants as young as six months old have been documented suffering from rat attacks and severe insect infestations.
• Mass Orphanhood: More than 56,000 children have lost one or both parents. At least 17,000 are completely unaccompanied or separated from any family members, leaving them entirely vulnerable to exploitation, severe neglect, and starvation.
• Trauma: baseline involves young children being pinned under rubble or being the sole survivor of strikes. For example, human rights monitors documented the case of a 5-year-old girl trapped in a car for days alongside the bodies of her dead relatives. UNICEF assessments indicate that over 90% of Gazan children display signs of severe emotional distress and trauma. Aid workers report children freezing in terror or screaming at the sound of drones, while others have developed severe stutters or gone completely mute, retreating entirely into themselves.
• Loss of Childhood: Children spend their formative years scavenging through garbage for fuel or carrying heavy water containers rather than attending school, as the entire education sector has collapsed due to classroom bombings.

This self-perpetuating cycle of cruelty across time shows a deep historical irony; trauma generates more trauma. Societies that have experienced profound historical trauma often become obsessed with their own survival. The intense focus on self-preservation can lead to a state of moral blindness regarding the sufferings of others, where the fear of being victimised again is used to justify extreme or disproportionate actions against a perceived threat.

Parallels have often been drawn between Nazism and Zionism by historians, writers, academics, and other public figures, including intellectuals of Jewish descent like scientist Albert Einstein, political philosopher Hannah Arendt, and Israeli former army general Yair Golan. However, many pro-Israeli historians, political analysts and institutions such as the “International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance” (IHRA) reject this vehemently and argue that drawing comparisons between Nazism and Zionism is a form of modern antisemitism. Not much different from the argument that critiquing Hindutva or Islamist extremism is anti-Hindu or anti-Muslim. Nevertheless, there is also a separate group of scholars in Israel who have authored an alternative framework, “Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism” (JDA), which argues that though comparisons between Nazism and Zionism could be inaccurate, they need not always be dismissed as antisemitic.

Yet, unquestionably, whether driven by an ancient tyrant's paranoia, Nazi racial purity, or modern state security doctrines, the underlying moral failure is the same: the willingness of those in power to treat children as acceptable casualties or strategic targets in the pursuit of political or existential survival.

The Indian angle: Interestingly, the explosive report of the UN Commission, headed by Justice S. Muralidhar, comes at a time when India no longer holds steadfastly to its historical stance in support of the rights of Palestine. Srinivasan Muralidhar (65), who hails from Chennai, was in the news when he was transferred by the President of India in February 2020, on the recommendation of the Collegium of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, from the High Court of Delhi to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. His hurried midnight transfer was considered a punitive measure by the Central government in response to the Delhi High Court division bench headed by Muralidhar's hearings into the police's inaction during the 2020 Delhi riots. The transfer had led to country-wide protests, including a strike by the Delhi High Court lawyers. Though Muralidhar was elevated to the post of Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court in December 2020, he retired in August 2023 without reaching the Supreme Court.