Killing children

THE most horrific element of the ongoing genocide in Gaza — pushed off the front pages by the US-Iran conflict — is the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children by Israeli security forces. More than 60,000 Palestinian children have reportedly been killed or injured by Zionist forces in the enclave over the past 32 months, and the genocide continues despite the ceasefire. According to Unicef, one Palestinian child has been killed on average every day since the truce began last October.

Arguably, there is no comparable case of genocide against children in recorded history. A report released last week by the three-member Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel — established by the UN Human Rights Council — provides harrowing new details. It documents serious physical and psychological harm inflicted on Palestinian children by Israeli security forces since Oct 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of at least 20,179 children and injuries to 44,143.

The Commission examined how the living conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza are “resulting in preventable mortality of children”. Severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacement, starvation and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood in Gaza, is one of the report’s findings. This situation will continue to shape the territory’s children for the rest of their lives. “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future,” said Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the inquiry.

Israel, the report adds, is “eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, [and] weakening the demographic vitality…”. It has caused a “severe orphan crisis”, and wounded youngsters “face a lifetime of disability” — now “a defining demographic reality” among Gaza’s children. The siege “directly undermined reproductive and newborn health”, while the collapse of public health programmes has “eroded the conditions necessary for a healthy next generation”.

Israel has wiped out an entire young Palestinian generation.

Yet there are no sanctions on the country committing these war crimes. The criminal silence of the so-called civilised Western world and the apathy of regional governments have granted the Zionist state continued impunity. Despite the so-called ceasefire, approximately 300 more children have been killed in the territory — most of it still under Israeli control. Unicef has noted that children have been “shot, bombed and struck by quadcopters, killed in tents, in schools and while playing football or fishing”. Israel has wiped out an entire young Palestinian generation.

Beyond Gaza, the picture is also grim. The Commission has observed a sharp rise in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. It has noted that “Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, and war crimes in the West Bank”.

The report documents that children in Gaza and the West Bank — especially adolescent boys — have been “arrested, tortured, and ill-treated in Israeli prisons and detention facilities”, and records “incidents of sexual and gender-based violence targeting Palestinian children, often during arrests or in detention”. It accuses Israel of using starvation as a method of war, and warns that restrictions on humanitarian aid have “produced acute and chronic malnutrition among children in Gaza, removing the basic conditions necessary for their survival”. The report lists specific Israeli divisions, brigades and units that may be responsible for killing children in recorded incidents in Gaza and the West Bank.

As an Israeli human rights group detailed in its recent report, Unshielded Childhood, the widespread and unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the product of Israel’s broader policy of killing Palestinians without accountability.

American complicity in Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinian children is equally clear. Unsurprisingly, the State Department has joined Israel in dismissing the UN report as biased. The Trump administration has maintained its policy of unconditional military and diplomatic support for Israel — not merely covering up for the Zionist state’s war crimes but actively patronising them. The reaction to the report of certain Western countries has also been apathetic, with some even appearing to be sceptical.

The International Court of Justice is already hearing a case filed by South Africa, supported by 65 other countries under the 1948 Genocide Convention, accusing Israel of acts intended to destroy the Palestinian people in Gaza. In January 2024, the ICJ ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. A follow-up order in March 2024 demanded unimpeded delivery of food, water, electricity, fuel and medical supplies.

The ICJ found it plausible that the right to be protected from genocide was at risk. Statements by senior Israeli officials — calling Palestinians “human animals”, demanding Gaza be “flattened”, and threatening starvation — have been deemed sufficient to bring charges against Israel under the Genocide Convention.

Israel wants the case dismissed as it argues that the dispute concerns armed conflict, and not genocide. The US, which often resists the ICJ’s authority, backs Israel’s position. The latest UN report on the targeted killing of Palestinian children reinforces what appears to be Israel’s genocidal intent. What is happening in Gaza and the other occupied Palestinian territories reminds many of the Holocaust. Yet the genocide of Palestinian children is being perpetrated by those who say they are the progeny of the victims of that very tragedy. The US and other Western countries are no less responsible for the ongoing genocide against the children of Gaza.

As the UN Commission noted, by targeting children, Israel is “eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, weakening the demographic vitality, and overall capacity of the Palestinian people to sustain and exercise its right to determine its future as a people”. Is the world listening to the cries of Palestinian mothers and children?

The writer is a writer and journalist.

zhussain100@yahoo.com

X: @hidhussain

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2026 ...