(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The harrowing image of a Syrian boy sitting dazed on the back of an ambulance in war-ravaged Aleppo reveals the fate of children living in war-torn countries. Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh is the new symbol of suffering Syrians. No image has captured the public like that of Omran, with the impact likened to that seen after the death of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian boy whose drowned body was seen washed up on a Turkish beach. Everyone in Omran";s immediate family survived with injuries when their house was destroyed by an air strike, blamed on Syrian regime and Russia. Eight people were killed in the strike, including five children. Omran, his three siblings, aged one, six and 11, as well as his mother and father, were pulled out from their partially destroyed block of flats.
The volunteers from the Syrian Civil Defence group, known as White Helmets, who rescued Omran, have warned that similar tragedies happen every day in Syria. Bibars Halabi from the group says everyday his team members rescue children and families after receiving reports of air strikes. The White Helmets, nominated for the Nobel Prize for their life-saving work in Syrian warzones, regularly posts harrowing footage and images from bombarded areas.
Aleppo, in northern Syria, has been besieged for years as a result of unending civil war. The city, split between regime and rebel control, has been at the epicentre of continued battles and bombing despite successive ceasefire attempts. Thousands of people have been killed there, including 4,500 children.
According to the Unicef, no child in Syria is safe while the conflict drags on and more than 3.5 million children under the age of five know nothing but displacement, violence and uncertainty. Children are not safe where military is given free hand. The occupied Palestine is the best example where atrocities committed against children by the Israeli army are on the rise. The pellet-ridden face of 14-year-old Kashmiri girl Insha Malik is another symbol of inhuman military actions prevailing in the northern Indian state of Kashmir. Insha has not only become blind in both eyes but also lost her mental balance due to a brain infection resulting from pellet injury. The class 9 student had been sitting with her mother and siblings in the kitchen on the first floor of their house when a soldier standing below fired at her with a pellet gun. If warmongers, no matter whether they are government or militant groups, continue their nefarious attempts, the number of child casualties will rise at an alarming rate resulting in a bleak future in these areas.