The UN says at least 100 children have been killed or injured every day in Gaza since the strike resumed on March 18, despite emphasizing that the US continues to support Israel.
“There is nothing justifying the murder of a child,” Philip Lazarini, head of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), posted on X on Saturday.
He said Israel is turning its besieged territory into a “no sand” for children, lamenting that “young life” is “shortened by war, not by children’s works.”
“This is a stain on our common humanity,” Lazarini said.
“It’s miserable.
@unicef says that at least 100 children reportedly killed or injured on #Gaza every day since the strike resumed (March 18)
Young lives were shortened by war rather than by children’s works.
The war was 1. Since it began five years ago, 15,000 children reportedly had been pic.twitter.com/lidpx0lyn7
– Unrwa (@unrwa) April 4, 2025
UNICEF said at least 322 children have been reportedly killed since Israel renewed its attack on March 18, shattering the two-month volatile ceasefire that took effect on January 19.
UNICEF Executive Director Katherine Russell said Monday that the ceasefire “providing the children of Gaza with the lifeline they desperately need and a path to recovery.”
“But the kids have once again entered a cycle of fatal violence and deprivation,” she said.
“Each number representing life”
Marking the annual Palestine Children’s Day on April 5, the Palestinian Ministry of Education on Saturday said that children were among the most targeted victims of Israeli attacks, with more than 17,000 people killed in Gaza since October 2023.
“The numbers reflect the depth of the tragedy that children endure, with each number representing lost lives, memories and experiences,” the ministry said.
Palestinian group Hamas also accused Israel of saying it was “intentional killing, detention, torture and the deprivation of their fundamental human rights.”
He warned that Israel’s “immunity promotes further escalation of crimes against Palestinians.”
“Around 1,100 children have been detained by the Israeli military since October 7, 2023, with approximately 39,000 people losing one or both parents due to violence,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israel’s occupation “continues targeting children through systemic crime, including using children as human shields, depriving them of education, manipulating curriculum, expanding crime, and destroying values,” he added.
Data released on Saturday by the Palestinian Detainees Committee, the Palestinian Prisoners Association and the Adameyer Prisoners Assistance and Human Rights Association said 1,200 Palestinian children have been detained from the Israeli occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023.
The statement said child detainees are subject to “torturing, starvation, medical negligence and systematic deprivation.”
These conditions have recently resulted in the death of the first child prisoner since the start of the Gaza War, and 17-year-old Walid Ahmad of the town of Sirwad, northeast of Ramallah, who was killed at Megidd prison in northern Israel.
According to human rights reports for both Palestinians and Israeli people, more than 9,500 Palestinians, including women and more than 350 children, are currently being held in Israeli prisons under harsh conditions.
Meanwhile, Unrwa said that over 142,000 Palestinians were driven out between March 18 and March 23, warning of another humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza after the collapse of the ceasefire.
“Since the start of the war in Gaza, around 1.9 million people, including thousands of children, have experienced repeated forced displacement amidst artillery, fear and loss,” said a statement issued by UNRWA on Palestine Children’s Day.
Israel has killed more than 50,600 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. Most of them are women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Joab Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel is also facing a genocide case in the International Court of Justice due to its war with the enclave.
