Israeli violence is subjecting Palestinian children to catastrophic levels of harm: killed, maimed, displaced, and living in perpetual insecurity

Sam is one of 241 children killed by Israeli security forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since 7 October 2023, as verified by the UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCHR OPT). This is in addition to over 21,000 children who have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza in the same period, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, with killings continuing after the announcement of a ceasefire in October 2025.

Since the ceasefire announcement, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has reported the killing of 981 Palestinians in Israeli attacks in Gaza. OHCHR OPT has so far verified the killing of 574 Palestinians during this period, including 183 children, five of whom were infants under the age of one.

On 4 February 2026, Israeli forces opened fire on an encampment for displaced people in Al Tuffah, Gaza City, killing five Palestinians, including two women and two baby girls: 5-month-old Mira Al Khabbaz and Watein Al Khabbaz, born less than a week before.

Forty-eight of the 183 verified child fatalities after the ceasefire announcement were victims of incidents in which only children were killed, raising concerns about Israeli forces directly targeting Palestinian children. Fifteen women have also been killed in incidents in which only women, or only women and children, were killed.

On 29 October 2025, an Israeli airstrike hit a tent housing displaced people in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, and killed three Palestinians: two brothers aged eight and 11, and their 15-year-old sister. On 31 January 2026, an Israeli strike hit a residential building in western Gaza City, killing two women aged 60 and 23, and three sisters aged five, seven and nine. On 2 February 2026, Israeli Naval Forces killed one Palestinian, a 2-year-old boy, in his tent on the coast of Al Mawasi, Khan Younis.

In the West Bank, the 241 verified child fatalities represent nearly one in five of the 1,103 Palestinian victims killed by Israeli security forces and settlers since 7 October 2023.

In March 2026, three months before the shooting that killed 7-month-old Sam in Hebron, a similar attack in Tammun, south of Tubas, killed four family members in their car. At the time, Israeli security forces opened fire on a Palestinian vehicle, killing a father, Ali Bani Odeh, a mother, Wa’ad Bani Odeh, and their 5- and 6-year-old sons, Mohammad and Othman. Two children survived the shooting, aged eight and 11, but later reported that they were assaulted by Israeli security forces when they left the car.  

Most of the children killed in the West Bank are teenage boys, 213 out of 241. In many cases, subsequent statements by Israeli authorities accuse the children of having engaged in stone-throwing as a justification. In all OHCHR OPT-verified killings of minors involved in confrontations with Israeli security forces, our assessment is that none posed an imminent threat to life —the only legal justification for the use of lethal force in the occupied West Bank under international law. Where less harmful means were available, such lethal force may constitute an arbitrary deprivation of life and, in the context of occupation, may amount to willful killing, a war crime.

On 20 December 2025, a member of Israeli security forces hiding behind a wall shot and killed 16-year-old Rayan Abu Mulla in Qabatiya, south of Jenin, on his way home. An official Israeli statement claimed Rayan was throwing stones. However, according to witnesses and CCTV footage, he was walking empty-handed. Israeli security forces also prevented ambulances from assisting Rayan. They then took his body away and refused to hand it over for burial.

OHCHR OPT’s analysis demonstrates a pattern of Israeli security forces preventing medical assistance to injured Palestinians and withholding bodies, including those of children. 

Children are civilians and have special protections under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The routine assault on their right to life, safety, and liberty in the Occupied Palestinian Territory at this massive scale points to war crimes.

“From newborns to teenagers, Palestinian children have not been spared extraordinary levels of Israeli violence. The pattern, at a minimum, shows a dangerous scale of dehumanisation and disregard for Palestinian lives,” said Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “Palestinian children must be able to grow up in safety, with the same rights and protections as children anywhere else in the world. Surviving childhood should never be this difficult.”