Tag Archives: vulnerable children

Two recent reports have drawn attention to what human rights organisations and UN investigators describe as one of the defining features of Israel’s assault on Palestinian life: the systematic targeting of Palestinian children.

The first report, published by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, examines violations against Palestinian children since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. The second, by the leading Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, documents the killing of children by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank.

While focused on different contexts, the reports paint a strikingly similar picture. They reveal a pattern in which Palestinian children are routinely killed, injured, displaced, detained and deprived of the conditions necessary for life and development. In this context, the targeting of children emerges as a central feature of Israel’s wider campaign of genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement.

The UN’s findings

The UN independent international commission of inquiry’s report, “The essence of childhood has been destroyed”: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023 , is among the most comprehensive examinations to date of the impact of the ongoing genocide on Palestinian children.

The report notes that at least 20,179 children have been killed and 44,143 more injured as a result of Israeli military action in Gaza since October 2023. It highlights the continued killing of Palestinian children since the October ‘ceasefire’ came into effect, the sharp increase in violence against Palestinian children in the West Bank, and the use of torture, illtreatment and sexual violence against Palestinian children in detention.