At least 41 children have been killed this year by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF).
Some of the boys and girls were killed during Israeli military raids, while others were killed in settler attacks. A number of them were shot while walking in their neighbourhoods, playing outside or staying in their homes.
“The situation in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, has significantly deteriorated,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires told Al Jazeera.
According to Defense for Children International – Palestine, a human rights organisation focused on child rights, at least 23 children under the age of 16 have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year.
Among the children killed were Layla, aged two, shot in Jenin while perched on her mother’s lap; Saddam, 10, killed while holding his father’s phone in Tulkarem; Amer, 14, a US citizen from New Jersey whose father said he was shot while picking almonds; Ayman, 12, killed outside his grandfather’s home in Hebron; Rimas, 13, shot in the Jenin refugee camp while playing outside; Ahmad, 14, killed in Sebastia under unclear circumstances; and Mahmoud, 14, one of five people killed in a Jenin missile attack that spared only his father.
Israeli authorities claim their operations target fighters and that soldiers are prohibited from firing at civilians, especially minors.
But the circumstances of the children’s killings call those claims into question. The military says investigations into some of the cases are ongoing, but families report receiving no information about what happened to their children and demand accountability.
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In June, the UN kept Israel on its “blacklist” of countries committing abuses against children in armed conflict for a second year.
In a report, it said violence against children in conflict zones reached “unprecedented levels” in 2024, with the highest number of violations committed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Each case in this photo gallery is documented with names, ages, locations and circumstances, underscoring both the personal loss and scale of child casualties in the conflict.
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