Plight of Gaza Children Highlighted on World Children’s Day
Timothy McCord, in an article published on the website diem25.org, wrote:
On World Children’s Day, marking the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1989, UNICEF calls for us all to “amplify children’s voices and stand up for the rights of every child”. However, Israel, which ratified this convention in 1991, has become a genocidal rogue state that deliberately and systematically targets Palestinian children. The facts are clear, as is Israel’s culpability.
In September of this year, Save the Children announced that over a nearly 23-month period since October 7, 2023, the number of children killed in Gaza exceeded 20,000. At least 1,009 were under the age of one – 450 of which were born and killed during the genocide. In the first four months of the genocide, reported child fatalities in Gaza were higher than from four years of global conflict.
A Protection Analysis Update by The Global Protection Cluster, a network of NGOs, international organizations and UN agencies, reported that over 40,500 children are estimated to be injured as of July 3, 2025; an average of 15 children per day acquire potentially life-altering disabilities, and 10 children per day lose one or both of their legs. By January 2025 UNICEF declared that “the Gaza Strip now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world.”
The intentional shooting of Palestinian children was exposed by an investigation published in September 2025 by Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. It revealed that international volunteer doctors working in Gaza observed a disturbing pattern: children with a single gunshot wound to the head or chest, a sign that they had been deliberately targeted. Collectively, 15 international doctors testified that they saw 114 cases of children aged 15 years and younger with such wounds, the majority of whom have died. Former Dutch army commander, Mart de Kruif, pointed out that “if you’re seeing a high number of gunshot wounds to the chest area and the head, that’s not collateral damage – that’s deliberate targeting.”
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Israel’s blockade on essential food supplies and other humanitarian aid inevitably led to a man-made famine that was officially declared by the Integrated Food Phase Classification (IPC) in its report of August 22, 2025. The intent of Israel was clear from the outset, as stated by the then defense minister, Yoav Gallant, now subject to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for, amongst other things, the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.
As of September 19, 2025, the known number of people who have starved to death, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, reached at least 440 people, including 147 children. With Israel’s continuing violation of the ceasefire, including blocking of vital aid supplies, the situation for many children remains extremely dire.
The much criticized American and Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GFH), cynically introduced to replace established UN led humanitarian relief operation, was just a fig leaf to assuage Western guilt and mounting criticism. The GFH operation rapidly turned into a ‘killing field’. Many children seeking food have been killed or maimed at the aid distribution sites after GFH started its operations. It is really quite dystopian when children are faced with the dilemma of either starving, or risking death or injury by going to an aid distribution centre.
While Gaza has borne brunt of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, increasing Israeli violence in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem (al-Quds) has also had devastating effects on Palestinian children that live there. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that, between October 7, 2023 and November 13, 2025, 221 children were among the victims killed by Israeli security forces and settlers. Recorded child injuries were 1,828. As Israel plans for annexation of the West Bank, the situation there is likely to deteriorate triggering further increases in the number of dead and injured children.
Yet another way that Israel targets Palestinian children is through incarcerating them in their prison network of torture camps, where they face abuse, mistreatment and worse. In September of this year, Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP) published the latest data available from the Israel Prison Service. It shows that as of 30 June, 360 Palestinian children are being detained,147 (41%) of which are held in administrative detention without charge or trial – the highest number since DCIP began monitoring these numbers.
DCIP points out that these figures do not include children who are detained at Israeli military detention and interrogation centers, such as Huwwara, or military bases like Sde Teiman, as there is no available data. Three children that were abducted by Israeli force while seeking aid, and later released as part of the recent prisoner exchange, were interviewed by DCIP and recounted the horrors they were subjected to. Due to Israel preventing or severely restricting access to Palestinian detainees by the International Committee of the Red Cross, lawyers, family members etc., this sort of treatment of children is likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg.
Israel’s incessant genocidal violence and destruction have impacted Palestinian children severely. With the extensive destruction of vital infrastructure and the lack of essential services, like health and education, children have been denied the basic conditions necessary to survive and develop. The violence they have been subjected to, the loss of family members and friends, the constant fear for their safety, the injuries sustained and the acute malnutrition suffered will leave its mark. This generation of Palestinian children are very likely to suffer from extreme trauma and other serious complications over a protracted period.
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The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was unequivocal when it stressed that “Israel’s ongoing actions constitute outright violations that strike at the very heart of the rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child “.
Israel must be forced by states to end its genocide, illegal occupation, system of apartheid and oppression against the Palestinian people, and to be in full compliance with the above convention. The inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination can no longer be denied.
Palestinian children have been murdered, maimed, starved, psychologically damaged, incarcerated without trial, abused and tortured, and the world still does not take the meaningful action necessary to bring this horror to an end. States must end their silence and complicity that have allowed this situation to continue for far too long.
UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, in her report “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime” forensically examines this complicity. She also clearly lays out the steps that states need to take. There is no excuse for them not to do so.
For the sake of Palestinian children and humanity, states must not delay any longer. Act now!
Source: diem25.org
