Ramallah, October 7, 2024—Today marks one year since the Israeli military unleashed its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces have killed more than 16,920 Palestinian children, according to the Gaza Governmental Media Office, since the Israeli military unleashed a massive military offensive on the Gaza Strip on October 7. Israeli forces have critically injured thousands of Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, creating lifelong disabilities in direct and indiscriminate attacks as part of Israel’s campaign of genocide against Palestinians.
Palestinian children who have so far survived the Israeli military’s intense bombing across the Gaza Strip are suffering in an increasingly dire humanmade humanitarian crisis, compounding existing mental and emotional traumas sustained from 17 years of siege and Israeli military offensives.
At least 25,973 children are living without one or both parents, according to the Gaza Governmental Media Office, and many others are still missing and buried under the rubble. Over 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes and 60 percent of residential buildings have been destroyed, according to UN OCHA.
Through a year, Defense for Children International - Palestine collected hundreds of testimonies and stories from children, parents and guardians, describing the childhood suffering from the ongoing Israeli bombardments in Gaza.
“Repeated Israeli military offensives and Israel’s complete disregard for international law have thwarted any meaningful efforts toward implementing comprehensive protections for Palestinian children,” said Khaled Quzmar, general director of DCIP. “The international community must demand an immediate end to the Israeli genocidal campaign on Gaza and challenge systemic impunity by investigating allegations of war crimes and holding the perpetrators accountable.”
Since October 7, Israel’s genocidal assault has been exacerbated by the blocking of humanitarian aid, targeting aid workers, closing Gaza's checkpoints, and cutting off electricity and communication. Israeli forces have ensured the lack of access to the basic rights and care to the Palestinian children, intentionally depriving them of food and clean water and targeting homes, sheltering centers and camps, hospitals, paramedics, ambulances, and medical staff.
Israeli authorities are systematically denying Palestinian children in Gaza access to adequate food and nutrition, leading to widespread starvation and malnutrition. This deprivation is causing severe health issues, including stunted growth and a sharp rise in child fatality rates. The ongoing blockade and restrictions on humanitarian aid, imposed during the Israeli genocide, have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis, perpetuating the suffering of the entire population in the Gaza Strip.
Pregnant women and newborns are also being left to die, as hospitals face severe shortages of even basic medical supplies. Many Palestinian newborns are denied their fundamental right to life, their lives in this world cut short by Israel’s brutal military actions. This collective punishment has created a grim reality for vulnerable groups, further deepening the tragedy in Gaza.
According to the Gaza Governmental Media Office, 171 infants were born and died, while 710 children under the age of one lost their lives during the ongoing Israeli genocide.
“There is no safe space in the Gaza Strip for Palestinian children and their families and they increasingly bear the brunt of Israel’s ongoing genocide,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Not a single person has been held accountable for the killing of Palestinian children, emboldening Israeli forces to continue killing with impunity.”
The Israeli military offensive has resulted in a significant number of child amputees. According to UNICEF, more than 1,000 children have become amputees since October, often without anesthesia due to severe shortages in medical supplies. This has left many children facing lifelong physical and psychological challenges.
“I only want one thing: For the war to end,” said 12-year-old Dunia Abu Mohsen to DCIP, who was recovering from losing her leg in an Israeli airstrike that killed her parents and siblings in Naser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, when an Israeli tank-fired shell hit the hospital and struck her in the head the evening of December 17. The tank shell, which did not explode, injured several other Palestinians.
Israeli forces deliberately target Palestinian civilians, including children, from close range in indiscriminate and disproportionate manners with the purpose of killing them, exploiting the impunity given to the occupation. Israeli forces have caused permanent disabilities by critically injuring thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza since the beginning of October 7, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have recently witnessed an alarming outbreak of diseases among the population, mostly children, as a result of the extremely harsh conditions they live in, specifically in the crowded displacement camps that house hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Stagnant sewage water pools around these camps, attracting disease-carrying insects that spread deadly infections. Chickenpox, polio, and other preventable diseases now plague these makeshift camps, and children are suffering intensely, without access to treatment. This is not an incidental consequence of genocide; it is a deliberate strategy of extermination.
Israeli forces are carrying out the enforced disappearance of Palestinian children as they detain children from Gaza and refuse to disclose their numbers and whereabouts. The conditions in Israeli prisons have deteriorated rapidly since October 7 as Israeli forces crowd Palestinian children into cells, serve rotten food, and deprive children of family visits.
Nearly all Palestinian child detainees are detained arbitrarily and interrogated without legal counsel or the presence of their families. This abuse is a deliberate tactic in a broader strategy to inflict deep, complex trauma and systematically dehumanize Palestinians children.
20 percent of the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2000 have been killed after October 7, 2023 at a rate of one child every two days, Defense for Children International - Palestine said in its report, “Targeting Childhood: Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank.”
164 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, according to documentation collected by DCIP, when the Israeli military began a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip. The most recent child fatalities occurred on October 3, when an Israeli fighter jet fired three missiles, struck and killed three Palestinian children in Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.
Under international law, genocide is prohibited and constitutes the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group, in whole or in part. Genocide can result from killing or by creating conditions of life that are so unbearable it brings about the group’s destruction.
International humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks and requires all parties to an armed conflict to distinguish between military targets, civilians, and civilian objects. Deploying explosive weapons in densely-populated civilian areas constitutes indiscriminate attacks and carrying out direct attacks against civilians or civilian objects amounts to war crimes.
Israeli authorities have imposed a closure policy against the Gaza Strip since 2007 by strictly controlling and limiting the entry and exit of individuals; maintaining harsh restrictions on imports including food, construction materials, fuel, and other essential items; as well as prohibiting exports. Israel continues to maintain complete control over the Gaza Strip’s borders, airspace, and territorial waters.
