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A Palestinian child has been killed every two days in the occupied West Bank since the Israel-Gaza war began, a children's rights organisation has found.
Despite not being directly part of Israel's bombardment of Gaza, 141 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, between October 7 2023 and July 31, according to Defence for Children International Palestine.
A total of 705 Palestinian children have been killed there by Israeli forces and settlers since 2000 – with 20 per cent of those deaths in less than 10 months after the war began last October, the report found.
With 141 children killed in the 297 days between the start of the war and July 31, that averages at almost one child killed every two days.
“When an Israeli soldier targets a Palestinian child, or an Israeli military official orders the targeting of a child, they are in violation of international human rights, humanitarian, and criminal law,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability programme director at DCI-Palestine.
“Not a single person has been held accountable for the killing of these children, emboldening Israeli forces to continue killing with impunity.”
The Ramallah-based group reviewed witness testimonies, medical reports and CCTV footage collected by its workers, revealing increasing violence towards children in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 116 Palestinian children in the West Bank using live ammunition, fired in some cases by trained snipers.
Over half of these children were shot in the torso, while just over 20 per cent were shot in the head. Eighteen children were shot in the back, 17 were killed by multiple gunshot wounds, while two died from fatal injuries to their limbs.
In approximately 8 per cent of cases, involving 10 children, the exact location of the gunshot could not be determined, as Israeli authorities had confiscated the child's body.
Another 25 Palestinian children were killed in aerial attacks in the West Bank, said DCI-Palestine. Some were directly targeted, while others were killed when Israeli forces deployed aerial strikes in densely populated civilian areas.
The NGO said Israeli forces are “deliberately targeting Palestinian children, with the intent of inflicting cruel and degrading treatment up until the moment of death”.
“Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children with calculated brutality and cruelty all throughout the occupied Palestinian territory,” said DCI-Palestine's general director Khaled Quzmar. “The international community must act urgently to enact an arms embargo and sanctions to protect Palestinian children’s lives.”
The UN's children's agency said the rise of child fatalities in the region raises “serious alarm over the unnecessary and excessive use of force against the most vulnerable”.
Unicef said child fatalities have been reported in 10 out of 11 governorates in the West Bank – with the highest concentrations of killings occurring in the cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nablus. These areas have been subjected to frequent raids, with the latest incursion by Israeli troops killing more than 40 Palestinians.
One such incident occurred in Jenin in November 2023, when Adam Samer Al Ghoul, 8, and Basil Suleiman Abu Al Wafa, 16, were shot dead by occupation forces in Jenin.
Adam was shot in the head and Basil in the chest when Israeli forces accompanied by bulldozers entered the city. CCTV footage emerged of the shooting, yet no Israeli soldiers have been held accountable for their deaths.
Recent military operations in these areas have been described as the largest in years, with Israeli forces conducting widespread raids, increasing fatalities across the West Bank.
