Quick summary:
• Over 17,500 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, with many more uncounted due to starvation, disease, or being trapped under rubble.
• Gaza’s health system has collapsed, leading to untreated injuries, amputations without anesthesia, and widespread disease outbreaks like polio, chickenpox, and scabies.
• Israeli forces systematically used Palestinian children as human shields, including an incident where children were tied and forced to walk ahead of tanks during a military operation.
• Thousands of children have been displaced, with 35,000 losing one or both parents, and infants have starved to death due to blocked humanitarian aid.
• In the West Bank, Israeli forces and settlers killed one Palestinian child every four days on average in 2024, often during military raids or settler attacks.
• Home demolitions, displacement, and settler violence targeted families and educational infrastructure, with schools and kindergartens destroyed.
• Palestinian children in Israeli detention reached record numbers, with reports of torture, abuse, and isolation from legal or family support.
In 2024, Israel’s military assault on Palestinians has reached unprecedented levels, with children bearing the brunt of the violence. Over 17,500 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to Gaza health officials, with the true number likely much higher. Many deaths remain uncounted as children die under rubble, from starvation, or from disease.
Children’s rights group Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) described the violence as an “unprecedented assault” on Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank. Their end-of-year report highlights the scale of child casualties, permanent injuries, and systemic abuses, including the documented use of children as human shields.
The Gaza health system, already weakened by decades of Israeli occupation, has collapsed under the weight of the ongoing military campaign. “Relentless aerial bombardments, ground invasions, and siege tactics deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians, leaving children to suffer the most,” DCIP’s report states.
At least 35,000 children have lost one or both parents, while thousands have been left critically injured or permanently disabled. Gaza’s blockade has exacerbated the crisis, leaving hospitals unable to meet emergency or long-term care needs. Amputations are being performed without anesthesia due to a lack of medical supplies.
Starvation among children has also reached catastrophic levels. DCIP documented the deaths of newborns and infants, including two-month-old Nahed Haboush and three-month-old Anwar Al-Khudari, who starved to death earlier this year after their malnourished mothers were unable to breastfeed them. These deaths are linked directly to Israel’s policy of blocking food and formula supplies from entering Gaza.
Diseases such as polio, chickenpox, and scabies have surged in overcrowded displacement camps, where contaminated water and stagnant sewage have created ideal conditions for outbreaks. Gaza recorded its first polio case in 25 years, paralyzing a 10-month-old child, after Israel prevented humanitarian groups from completing a vaccination campaign in northern Gaza.
Other diseases, such as hepatitis, have spread rapidly due to the destruction of Gaza’s health infrastructure and the lack of access to clean water and sanitation.
In one incident in March, DCIP documented Israeli soldiers forcing Palestinian children to serve as human shields during a military operation in Gaza City. The children, who were waiting in line for humanitarian aid, were reportedly stripped, tied up, and forced to walk in front of tanks. According to the report, the children were deprived of food and water for an entire day and used to enter buildings that Israeli soldiers intended to target.
“Israeli forces carried out an ‘unprecedented assault’ on Palestinian children in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in 2024, including repeatedly using children as human shields amid Israel’s genocide,” DCIP stated.
In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli forces and settlers killed one Palestinian child every four days in 2024, DCIP reports. The violence included live ammunition killings, home demolitions, and settler attacks, all carried out with what DCIP described as “decades of impunity.”
Settler violence displaced thousands of Palestinian families, while demolitions targeted homes, schools, and even kindergartens. In Jenin and Nour Shams refugee camps, entire neighborhoods were destroyed during military operations. In one case, Israeli forces demolished a kindergarten, disrupting access to education for dozens of children.
The number of Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces reached an all-time high in 2024, according to DCIP. As of September, at least 85 Palestinian children were being held in administrative detention, a practice that involves imprisonment without charge or trial. These children represent 35% of all Palestinian child detainees in Israeli prisons, up from 15% the previous year.
Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces often report beatings, sleep deprivation, and verbal and physical abuse during interrogations. Israeli military courts rarely exclude confessions obtained through coercion or torture, DCIP found. After October 2023, Israeli authorities implemented new restrictions that prevented Palestinian lawyers and families from visiting child detainees, effectively isolating them from the outside world.
The documented use of human shields, deliberate targeting of civilians, and the imposition of starvation and medical deprivation on children all constitute violations of international law. “At every turn, Israeli forces are violating Palestinian children’s rights and systematically eroding their chance at a safe and healthy future,” said Khaled Quzmar, general director at DCIP. “It is unthinkable that Israel’s genocide has continued for more than a year.”
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