Ansarollah Website | Report
On a day globally dedicated to celebrating childhood, in Palestine, it is not bells of joy that ring, but alarms of warning. From the very first moment of the occupation, Palestinian childhood has never been spared from targeting; it has been at the core of the colonial project, which early on understood that breaking generations begins with crushing their innocence.
From Deir Yassin to Jenin, and from Sabra and Shatila to Gaza, the Palestinian child has remained a direct target for killing, arrest, and displacement in a deliberate attempt to sever the lifeline of an entire people.
On this day (November 20), which is supposed to be a space for joy and protection, in Palestine it turns into a bloody mirror reflecting one of the most horrific crimes of the modern era.
While the Israeli enemy continues its open war crimes in the Gaza Strip, new chapters of the tragedy unfold, where the extermination extends beyond bombing and starvation to detention cells, where children’s freedom and dignity are simultaneously stripped, their childhood reshaped under the lashes of torture, amidst medical neglect, and behind the walls of isolation.
What is happening today is an extension of a long series of violations that began with the Nakba and continued over decades, evolving into a cold-blooded policy sometimes cloaked in the language of pseudo-“law” and at other times met with international silence.
While childhood is celebrated in the capitals of the world, the Israeli enemy buries children in Gaza under rubble, drives them to military courts in the West Bank, and deprives them of their most basic rights to life, education, and protection.
The suffering of Palestinian children goes beyond what can be described as a humanitarian tragedy; it has become a historical crime committed before the eyes of the world, recorded in the chronicles of Palestinian childhood as yet another chapter of the ongoing Nakba.
Numbers Written in Blood
In a statement issued by the Government Media Office, shocking figures were revealed that illustrate the scale of the catastrophe committed by the Israeli enemy: more than 20,000 children have been martyred since the start of the Israeli aggression, including over 1,000 infants who did not reach their first birthday, and 450 others who were born and martyred during the same aggression.
These figures, as the statement described, “are not mere statistics, but damning evidence of a genocide being committed against Palestinian childhood in the present century.”
Death was not the only fate; the tragedy extended to other forms of suffering. Some 154 children died of starvation due to the siege imposed by the Israeli enemy, while 14 others perished from the cold in forced displacement camps, where there is neither shelter nor warmth.
Maimed Bodies and Slow Death
More than 864 Palestinian children have suffered amputations due to direct Israeli shelling, while 5,200 children urgently require medical evacuation to save their lives, amid a deliberate denial of their right to treatment and mobility.
According to the Government Media Office, these figures represent “the largest wave of mass disabilities affecting children in modern Palestinian history.”
Under the heading “Starvation as a Weapon,” the report revealed that 650,000 children are at risk of dying from hunger, while 40,000 infants face the threat of death due to a shortage of baby formula. These figures signal an unprecedented humanitarian disaster and confirm the Israeli enemy’s deliberate targeting of infants as part of a policy of extermination.
Mass Orphanhood and Prisons Devour Childhood
More than 56,348 children have lost one or both parents and now live without protection or a safe environment, enduring collective trauma that will leave deep psychological scars for decades. The Government Media Office described these children as “victims of the harshest genocide of this century.”
Alongside the bombardment, data collected by Palestinian prisoner organizations show that the detention of children in Israeli prisons has become even harsher since the start of the war. It is no longer just an extension of old repressive policies but a systematic framework targeting childhood, amplifying both physical and psychological harm.
Over 1,630 children have been arrested in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in a short period, along with dozens from Gaza who were kidnapped during the Gaza offensive, with information about many remaining unknown due to enforced disappearances and visitation bans. Currently, around 350 Palestinian children are held in Israeli prisons, including two girls, subjected to torture, starvation, medical neglect, and isolation.
The trauma of detention begins the moment Israeli forces raid homes at dawn, breaking doors and waking families amid screams. Children are forced to stand or sit on the floor for hours, then transported bound into military jeeps. In the first hours, many are forcibly disappeared, with families unable to know their location or condition.
Interrogation is a brutal stage where childhood is confined in cramped, unventilated rooms, subjected to long hours of questioning, sleep deprivation, threats, and psychological pressure.
Inside Israeli prisons, children live in overcrowded rooms with minimal clothing and confiscated personal items. Night raids continue, carried out by special Israeli units using sticks, dogs, and gas. Skin diseases worsen due to poor hygiene, and children are either denied medical care or given inappropriate painkillers.
Gaza Children Used as Human Shields on the Battlefield
The Palestinian Media Center recounts the case of the child martyr Waleed Khaled Ahmed from Silwad, whose tragic story reflects the scale of the crimes committed. He died inside the Israeli prison of “Megiddo” in March 2025 due to starvation, deprivation, and medical neglect. The autopsy report revealed severe atrophy, almost complete loss of muscle mass, air swelling in the chest and abdomen, and widespread skin lesions caused by scabies—a result of systematic torture and deliberate starvation that led to his death.
In Gaza, detention was not merely imprisonment; it was accompanied by horrific abuses. Israeli forces used children as human shields during military operations, subjecting them to severe torture, deliberate starvation, denial of water, and continuous isolation.
Firsthand Accounts: When Pain Speaks
The 17-year-old child M.K. recounts six months of detention in the Israeli-run “Sdey Teyman” and “Ofer” camps, where he spent the entire period shackled. He lacked sufficient clothing, and skin diseases spread throughout the rooms. He endured daily raids, beatings with sticks and exposure to gas, and repeated denial of bathing.
Meanwhile, the 15-year-old child S.R. was used by Israeli forces as a human shield during the evacuation of the Sultan neighborhood in Rafah. He was forced to enter homes ahead of troops while wearing a military uniform. He was detained for 48 days and faced direct dangers, including a house being demolished over him and live gunfire aimed at his location.
Tents as Swamps and Blankets as Shrouds
In a scene that reflects the collapse of even the most basic living conditions, UN reports revealed that hundreds of tents and temporary shelters in Gaza have flooded with the onset of winter, affecting more than 13,000 displaced families.
This brings back the plight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in dilapidated tents after the Israeli enemy destroyed their homes and forced them to flee.
The tragedy extends beyond displacement, worsening with the collapse of the sewage system, forcing children to sleep on the ground in clothes soaked with contaminated water mixed with rain and sewage, according to Save the Children International.
The organization described the situation as an “explosive health catastrophe,” noting that children face deadly disease risks due to lack of footwear, dry clothes, and constant exposure to cold and dampness.
It added that the collapse of infrastructure after two years of bombing and blockade has turned every tent into a potential disease hotspot, with contaminated water flooding mattresses, blankets, and even food packages.
According to relief organizations, over 700,000 children in Gaza are at risk of disease and death, living in tents that could collapse at any moment, while more than 81% of buildings have been damaged. Families have been forced to patch holes with any available materials and sew blankets.
International organizations have warned of increasing risks of malnutrition and diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia, especially as temperatures drop—winter conditions in the past two years caused the deaths of at least 14 children, including infants.
In a statement, Ahmad Al-Hindawi, Regional Director of Save the Children, said: “For the third consecutive winter since the intense Israeli aggression began in October 2023, children in Gaza are still searching for safe and warm places to sleep.” Yet, amid the ongoing siege and international complicity and silence, the warmth of the world does not reach Gaza’s tents, where childhood remains buried under the rain, as it was once buried under the rubble.
Palestinian Childhood Between a Rock and a Hard Place
In the final scene of this harrowing chapter of history, Palestinian childhood is not only crushed under the rubble of homes or in interrogation cells, but also under the weight of an international system that has lost its moral compass and amid suspicious Arab silence.
The crimes committed against the children of Gaza and the West Bank have become a fully-fledged criminal system, carried out in broad daylight, documented in audio and visual media, without facing any deterrent response.
The Israeli enemy—continuing its open war on childhood—operates in an international space sterilized from justice, shielded from accountability, and surrounded by walls of immunity. Faint statements and gray positions attempt to cover the crimes with the veneer of international law without touching its essence.
International organizations meant to protect human rights have dropped the mask. They have become nothing more than bureaucratic facades issuing seasonal reports and managing the crises of Palestinian children in the language of statistics rather than rescue. UNICEF, the Security Council, the International Criminal Court—all appear powerless or complicit with the Israeli enemy, turning their backs on children who are killed by starvation, used as human shields, and buried without names.
What is happening goes beyond a humanitarian tragedy; it reflects a total moral collapse of an international system that claims to protect childhood while leaving it prey to Israeli extermination. While Children’s Day is celebrated in capitals worldwide with balloons and flowers, in Gaza it is marked with tears and graves.
Thus, Palestinian childhood is written in the color of blood, its story told in the notebooks of martyrs, not in legal textbooks—caught between the Israeli hammer and the anvil of international silence.
