Since the beginning of the brutal Israeli war on Gaza, Israel has significantly violated the global child rights treaty aimed at protecting children's rights, committing unprecedented violations against Palestinian children.
Palestinian children have endured hunger and disease, lost their homes and families, and faced severe traumatic violence. This trauma has been compounded by disrupted education, ongoing bombings, displacement, illness, and grief.
In June, the United Nations placed Israel on its "list of shame," a blacklist of nations and groups committing grave violations against children. However, Israeli officials have claimed that Israel's army is the "most moral military in the world," attempting to frame the IOF's actions positively and justify its military offensive. Israel continues to uphold this unfounded claim, despite mounting evidence of significant violations of international humanitarian law and children's rights treaties, as well as accusations of genocide in Gaza.
Children in Gaza Died from Starvation Due to Israeli Blockade
Israel has deliberately blocked the delivery of food and hindered humanitarian aid since the start of the brutal war on Gaza. Israeli officials have openly expressed their intent to deny civilians access to food, water, and fuel from the outset of the war.
Additionally, theIsraeli airstrikes and persistent restrictions on aid have led to severe shortages of food and essential supplies, contributing to the starvation of children in Gaza.
The Gaza Strip, where 80% of the population is currently internally displaced, has experienced the world's worst food crisis, according to a new U.N. report.
On March 15, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF published a report indicating that one in three children in northern Gaza are either acutely malnourished or experiencing wasting.
On April 9, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report stating that Israel is employing starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, leading to children's deaths from starvation-related complications.
Doctors and families in Gaza described children, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration, and hospitals ill-equipped to treat them, the rights group said.
“Concerned governments should impose targeted sanctions and suspend arms transfers to press the Israeli government to ensure access to humanitarian aid and basic services in Gaza, in accordance with Israel’s obligations under international law,” it added.
“The Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon of war has proven deadly for children in Gaza,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at HRW. “Israel needs to end this war crime, stop this suffering, and allow humanitarian aid to reach all of Gaza unhindered.”
A United Nations-coordinated partnership of 15 international organizations and U.N. agencies investigating the hunger crisis in Gaza reported on 18 March that “all evidence points towards a major acceleration of death and malnutrition.”
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of the pediatrics unit at Kamal Adwan Hospital, informed HRW on April 4 that 26 children had died from starvation-related complications at his hospital. He noted that at least 16 of these children were under five months old, while at least ten were between one and eight years old. Additionally, a 73-year-old man suffering from malnutrition also passed away.
Furthermore, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the U.N. health agency and its partners have been working to enhance nutrition services in the besieged Palestinian territory. More than 8,000 children under the age of five have been identified and treated for acute malnutrition, with 1,600 of them experiencing severe acute malnutrition, also referred to as severe wasting, which is the most lethal type of malnutrition.
A UNICEF survey conducted on May 6 found that nine out of ten children in Gaza, aged between 6 months and 2 years, are experiencing severe food poverty.
The UNICEF report stated that military action, which has destroyed food systems while imposing “severe restrictions on the import of commercial goods and humanitarian supplies," had “deprived millions of the food, water, and fuel they need.”
The report considers children who consume less than two of the eight defined food groups to be in “severe child food poverty.
Having conducted five rounds of data collection from December 2023 to April 2024, assessing child food poverty by asking real-time questions via SMS texting using RapidPro, an open source platform, UNICEF identified that about nine in 10 children (between 88 percent and 95 percent) “were living in severe child food poverty, surviving on diets comprising two or fewer food groups per day – one of the highest percentages ever recorded.”
International aid agencies have accused Israel of carrying out a targeted starvation campaign and hindering aid delivery, leading to widespread famine and the deaths of children in Gaza. However, Israel denied and falsely accused Hamas of obstructing humanitarian efforts in Gaza.
Over 10 Children Lose Limbs Daily in Gaza Amid Escalating Health Crisis
The ongoing war on Gaza has led to a disturbing surge in child amputations, with an average of 10 children losing one or both legs each day, according to Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
"Basically, we have every day ten children who are losing one leg or two legs on average," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva in June.
Speaking at a press conference, Lazzarini highlighted the dire conditions under which these amputations are performed, often without anesthesia.
Citing UNICEF data, Lazzarini said that approximately 2,000 children have undergone painful amputations over the 260 days of war. He emphasized that these numbers do not account for other severe injuries, including the loss of arms and hands, which are also prevalent.
Lazzarini also brought attention to the IOF’s targeting of aid workers and organizations, including U.N. agencies, “On the ground, the UN and UNRWA have been targeted. We have paid a heavy price.”
Entire families are being devastated by aerial bombardments, with children suffering the most. UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder described it as "a war on children." He noted that while most crises affect children severely, with a casualty rate of about 20%, in Gaza, this rate has risen to 40%.
Médecins Sans Frontières coordinator Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial reported witnessing the heartbreaking scene of many children, some as young as one, undergoing amputations.
“It is completely devastating to see,” she pointed out. “Babies as young as one year old are being amputated. These are babies that have never learned to walk, and now they never will walk [unaided].
Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in London who worked in Gaza during the initial phases of the Israeli military war on Gaza, stated, "This is the largest group of pediatric amputees ever recorded."
In November, he shared with The Telegraph that he had to perform amputations on six children in just one night. He explained that amputation frequently became the only viable solution as Israeli forces encircled the blood bank, making transfusions impossible.
In the same context, Reham Shaheen, a rehabilitation expert at HI, remarked, “The figures are significant. This is a result of the types of weapons employed.”
Gaza Hospitals Coin New Acronym: WCNSF - Wounded Child, No Surviving Family
Inside Gaza's overwhelmed hospital system, an influx of injured children arriving alone without any family has prompted doctors to coin a new term: WCNSF. The label indicates Wounded Child, No Surviving Family, signifying that the child is the only surviving member of their family.
On October 15, Ghassan Abu Sitta, a Palestinian British plastic surgeon specializing in treating conflict-related injuries who arrived in Gaza on October 9, tweeted: “W.C.N.S.F = Wounded Child No Surviving Family. This is a reality in Gaza.”
According to humanitarian organization Save The Children, medical professionals in Gaza coined the term due to the high number of children without surviving family members arriving for medical care.
According to humanitarian organization Save the Children, medical professionals in Gaza coined the term due to the high number of children without surviving family members arriving for medical care.
In an article, the organization said family support is a “critical coping mechanism” for children experiencing trauma: "There is no safe place, no sense of security, and no routine, with thousands displaced from their homes. Caregivers experiencing their own stress are struggling to help children cope with the overwhelming emotional reactions typical of young people traumatized by violence."
Furthermore, the World Health Organization stated that only 30 percent of healthcare workers who were active prior to the Israeli conflict in Gaza are still able to function due to deaths, arrests, and forced displacement.
U.N, Women estimated in April that Israel’s military operation in Gaza, which began on October 7, had left at least 19,000 children without one or both parents.
Israeli Authorities Deny Health Care Access to Palestinian Children from Gaza
In September, Save the Children reported that the Israeli authorities denied life-saving healthcare to nearly 400 Palestinian children in Gaza during the first half of 2023.
“Nearly 400 children in Gaza – or at least two children a day – were denied permits to go to the West Bank for critical healthcare in the first six months of 2023, leaving them without access to life-saving surgery or urgent medication,” the organization said in the statement. According to Save the Children, an average of 60 children have their applications rejected or left unanswered by Israeli authorities each month.
Jason Lee, the director of the NGO in the occupied Palestinian territory, emphasized that some children are critically ill and have no options for survival other than leaving Gaza.
“Denying children healthcare is inhumane and an infringement of their rights,” he underlined.
According to the London-based organization, three children, including a 19-month-old with a congenital heart condition, died in 2022 while their applications for exit permits from Gaza were either rejected or still awaiting review. The charity warned that Gaza’s health system remained “on the brink of collapse” after 16 years of blockade imposed by the Israeli government on the Strip.
“Neither chemotherapy nor radiology treatments are available due to Israeli government restrictions on medical equipment and medication entering Gaza,” the statement said.
Moreover, the restrictions have contributed to increasing poverty rates in the Gaza Strip, where malnutrition is widespread among families, especially in “access restricted areas.”
“Ten percent of families surveyed by Save the Children reported losing a child due to a preventable cause before the age of 5,” the nonprofit said.
Israeli Snipers Deliberately Targeted Children in Gaza
In an interview with CBS, orthopedic and hand surgeon Mark Perlmutter, who worked in Gaza for months, stated that he had never witnessed children so severely mutilated and injured as he did in the Gaza Strip.
Perlmutter told CBS News that the Israeli army intentionally targeted children, adding, “We have documents proving systematic targeting of children and the commission of war crimes against them.” He witnessed children being fatally shot by snipers in Gaza, contradicting Israeli military claims that it does not target children during conflicts.
“I have two children that I have photographs of that were shot so perfectly in the chest, I couldn’t put my stethoscope over their heart more accurately, and directly on the side of the head, in the same child,” Dr. Perlmutter said, adding that “no toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the ‘world’s best sniper.’ And they’re dead-center shots.”
Dr. Mark Pearlmuter indicated that Israel used cluster bombs. Doctors removed numerous small pieces of shrapnel from toddlers, infants, and teenagers. With over half of the country's population being children, the majority of victims were young. He noted that approximately 70–75% of those treated were elementary school age or younger.
Additionally, in late March, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that it had documented the Israeli army executing 13 Palestinian children through direct gunfire near the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza. The rights group characterized these acts as flagrant violations of international law, including international humanitarian law.
Israeli Airstrikes Wreck More Than 90% of Schools in Gaza
During an emergency meeting with the Council of Educational Affairs for the Children of Palestine at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Palestinian Education Minister Amjad Barham described the educational conditions in the Gaza Strip as dire, stating that the Israeli occupation aims to undermine the future of Palestinian children.
The minister noted that over 90 percent of schools in Gaza have been destroyed as a result of ongoing Israeli airstrikes.
“We decided that educational life would return to the Gaza Strip through displacement tents despite the random bombing, through e-learning for all students present in Gaza and outside it, and that the high school exams would be held, which is one of the most difficult challenges,” Barham said.
Over 90 percent of schools have been destroyed in Gaza amidst Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the enclave, the Palestinian education minister stated. Amjad Barham said that out of 309 schools, 290 had been destroyed, while the remainder were repurposed as refuges for the displaced.
Humanitarian agencies have warned that the absence of education will leave children with long-term difficulties and hinder their ability to resume learning in the future.
On September 25, a team of academics, in collaboration with UNRWA, released a report marking the first comprehensive assessment of the war's impact on education since October 2023. The study highlighted the severe effects on children, young people, and teachers, based on new testimonies from aid workers. The study revealed that Gaza's children have already lost 14 months of education since 2019 due to COVID-19, previous military actions, and the ongoing conflict.
The researchers calculate that 14 months of lost schooling so far have increased “learning poverty"—the proportion of children unable to read a basic text by age 10—by at least 20 percentage points.
Professor Pauline Rose, director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning Centre at the University of Cambridge, highlighted the urgent need to provide immediate educational support for children while also planning to rebuild Gaza’s shattered education system. She stated, "Education is a right for all young people. We must collectively protect it."
Palestinian Children Endure 'Starvation and Violence' in Israeli Prisons
On August 21, the rights organization Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) published a report revealing that Israeli occupation forces regularly detain and torture Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Some of these children are reportedly used as human shields. The report highlighted the harrowing experiences of abuse endured by Palestinian children held by the IOF.
According to the report, Israeli forces have detained an unknown number of Palestinians, including children, at Israeli military bases and detention centers in Israel since October 2023. The children’s names, exact locations, whereabouts, and conditions are also unknown, indicating these are enforced disappearances, which is a “serious breach of international law.’
"None of the 766 Palestinian children reported that Israeli authorities provided them with an arrest warrant at the time they were arrested," According to DCIP.
The group detailed an incident on December 27 in which the IOF stormed a neighborhood in Gaza City, destroying homes and detaining dozens of residents, including at least eight children.
Israeli soldiers forced three of these children, aged 11, 12, and 13, to strip and, with their hands bound, stand in front of Israeli tanks and bulldozers in order to shield themselves from attacks.
“They insulted us, slapped me on my face, and kicked me in my stomach and waist. I almost died from the beating,” the 12-year-old identified as Karim S., told DCIP. “Then they made us walk in front of bulldozers and tanks in the streets so that the resistance wouldn’t target them.”
DCIP's data highlights that three-quarters of the children experienced some form of physical violence after arrest. In 97 percent of cases, no parent was present during interrogation, and two-thirds were not properly informed of their rights. Israeli forces failed to inform children of the reason for their arrest in 85.5 percent of cases.
The statistics further reveal that 80 percent of children underwent strip searches, and 42 percent were denied adequate food and water, while 31 percent were denied access to a toilet.
Similar to adults in custody, children reported to DCIP that troops beat them severely, threatened their lives, humiliated them, denied them food, stripped them of their clothes, and unleashed dogs on them.
On July 31, the U.N. Human Rights Office released a report stating that Palestinian detainees endure beatings, extended exposure to cold, and are deprived of food, sleep, water, and medical assistance.
The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
An estimated 10,000 Palestinian children have been held in military detention over the past 20 years, with Save the Children noting that they are “the only children in the world who are systematically persecuted in military courts.”
Defense for Children International explained that Palestinians being details are held under Israel’s 2002 Unlawful Combatants Law. “This Israeli civil law permits the state to detain as claimed ‘enemy fighters’ for extended periods of time without following the standard legal procedures and to hold them without granting them the status of prisoners of war,” it explained.
U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk stated that the staggering number of men, women, children, doctors, journalists, and human rights defenders detained since October 7—most without charge or trial and held in deplorable conditions—along with reports of ill-treatment, torture, and violations of due process raises serious concerns about the arbitrary and punitive nature of these arrests and detentions.
“many were taken into custody while sheltering in schools, hospitals and residential buildings, or at checkpoints during the forced displacement of large numbers of Palestinians from north to south Gaza,” the report notes.
The Israel Prison Service strongly denied the international accusations of inhumane treatment, claiming that all prisoners are treated according to the law and that their basic rights are respected. However, the Israeli government has halted all humanitarian visits to Palestinian prisoners by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Gaza's Children Endure Mental Health Crisis After Year of Siege
International aid organizations report that the ongoing Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip has caused a "catastrophic" mental health crisis for civilians and humanitarian workers. The World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that children face serious risks, as their prolonged exposure to violence and stress increases the likelihood of mental health issues and can lead to long-term problems.
Save the Children notes that constant bombardment, displacement, and the loss of family members are driving many children toward anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other harmful mental health conditions in the Gaza strip.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has announced that more than 625,000 school-aged children in Gaza are experiencing severe trauma due to the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza.
The agency said in a statement on the X platform that, in the meantime, many children in the West Bank are exposed to escalating violence that negatively affects their lives and education.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, emphasized on the X platform that Palestinian children in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have endured significant losses since the escalation of violence nearly a year ago.
“Currently, nearly 625,000 deeply traumatized girls and boys are out of school and living among the rubble in Gaza, while many children in the West Bank are affected by increasing violence that disrupts their education and daily lives,” Lazzarini noted.
The U.K.-based charity Oxfam has described the war in Gaza as “one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century,” with a death toll now in excess of 40,170 — among them at least 25,000 women and children, according to Gaza’s health authority.
In February, the U.N. children’s fund, UNICEF, declared the Gaza Strip “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.”
Sahar Alhabaj, an occupational therapist at a U.K. mental health facility, said that unaccompanied and orphaned children in Gaza “are suffering from loneliness, emotional deprivation, and lack of care due to the absence of their families.”
These emotional challenges are aggravated by “their inability to understand deep concepts like death and comprehend the emotions associated with this concept, such as sadness and fear,” she told Arab News.
While those children may be “physically safe” once a permanent ceasefire is reached, Alhabaj said “they might suffer from long-term traumatic stress or personality disorders.”
Audrey McMahon, a child psychiatrist with Medecins Sans Frontieres, warned in June that the “entire population of children and teenagers in Gaza — more than 1 million people — will need mental health support” once the war ends.
After seeing firsthand the impact of the war on children, she told Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF): “In Palestine, there’s never a ‘post’ in post-traumatic stress syndrome. It’s ongoing trauma; it’s protracted trauma; it’s one war after the other.”
She added, “These children are human beings that have the same right to have a life lived in peace, to have access to good food, and to grow healthy. They should have a right to have dreams and hope for the future.”
In July 2021, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor released a report showing that 91% of children in Gaza were affected by trauma as a result of the Israeli conflict.
In a 2022 study conducted by the nonprofit Save the Children, nearly 500 children and 160 parents in Gaza were interviewed. The findings revealed that 80% of the children exhibited signs of emotional distress. Approximately half of them indicated they had thought about suicide, and three out of five were engaging in self-harm. Additionally, four out of five children reported experiencing depression, grief, and fear.
U.N. Condemns Israel for Gaza Child Rights Violations
On September 19, the U.N. Child Rights Committee reported that Israel committed ‘massive’ violations of children’s rights in Gaza. In a news conference in Geneva, the committee shared that it found no evidence of measures taken by Israel to protect children in Gaza during military operations. Bragi Gudbrandsson, the committee's vice chair, noted concerns over the use of wide-area weapons in densely populated residential areas, saying there were no sufficient responses from Israel about safeguarding civilian lives.
Reviewing six states, including Israel, the committee expressed deep concern over the impact of what it described as indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on the children of Gaza.
The committee was troubled by the number of children who have been killed, maimed, displaced, and subjected to famine and disease due to ongoing hostilities. It has urged Israel to ensure safe and unrestricted humanitarian access within Gaza and facilitate the entry of construction materials necessary to rebuild homes and infrastructure.
Additionally, the committee highlighted ongoing issues with the abduction, arbitrary arrest, and detention of large numbers of Palestinian children by Israeli forces, often without charge, trial, or legal representation. It called for an immediate end to such practices and urged the release of all arbitrarily detained children.
“The outrageous death of children is almost historically unique. This is an extremely dark place in history,” said Bragi Gudbrandsson, vice chair of the Committee.
“I don’t think we have seen a violation that is so massive before as we’ve seen in Gaza. These are extremely grave violations that we do not often see,” he said.
Gudbrandsson remarked that while Israel acknowledged its obligations under international humanitarian law, it failed to reassure the committee that steps had been taken to prevent civilian casualties.
Ongoing Israeli attacks have resulted in over 41,000 deaths - more than 15,000 minors - with over 95,500 injured, as per local health authorities. The blockade has left the territory in dire straits, causing severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine. Israel is facing accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
