Palestinian children of all ages are under attack by Israeli forces in Gaza, the UK-based Palestinian Return Centre said in a report submitted to the UN on the treatment of Palestinian children by Israeli forces in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“At the time of writing, over 12,000+ Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7th alone, with thousands more becoming amputees and succumbing life altering injuries,” read the report.
“Palestinian children of all ages are under attack by Israeli forces in Gaza. Palestinian schools had to end their academic year early due to the violence, with nearly all schools in the Strip becoming shelters for women and children who have had their homes destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. A vast number of these schools have been attacked, and are still being attacked by Israeli forces, despite them being all densely populated by Palestinian children,” it added.
Israeli forces “systematically” detain Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, leading to the detention of at least 200 kids since the war in Gaza began, the report said.
“The suffering of children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, must not fade into the background of the current conflict – it is part of it,” says the report.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates at least 17,000 children in Gaza are “now unaccompanied or separated from their families”, amid Israel’s five-month genocidal war on the coastal enclave.
“When we speak of a war on children, it’s not to try to be dramatic. It’s rooted in the data,” said James Elder, UNICEF’s chief spokesperson, who spent weeks in Gaza under bombardment.
“In ‘normal’ past conflicts, the rate was about 20%, so you’re looking at twice the number of children who have been killed and injured compared with previous conflicts,” he said.
