On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed six Palestinian children and four adults as they queued for water in a refugee camp. The Israeli military attributed the deaths to a 'technical error with the munition', expressing regret for harm to civilians. But the staggering toll of child deaths in Gaza continues to mount, with Gaza's health ministry reporting over 17,000 children among the 58,000 Palestinians killed since the war began.
These deaths are not isolated incidents. Children have been killed while sheltering in former schools, fleeing Israeli forces, or sleeping at home. Israeli intelligence sources told reporters last year that at times they were permitted to kill up to 20 civilians to eliminate even junior militants, with a preference for attacking targets at home. Human Rights Watch alleges that Israel's deliberate deprivation of water amounts to the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide.
The UN describes a human-made drought in Gaza, with thousands dying due to lack of water. Israel continues to restrict aid, leading to starvation. UNRWA reports that a tenth of children screened in its clinics are malnourished. Tens of thousands of children have been seriously injured, many becoming amputees. As of February last year, around 17,000 children were identified as unaccompanied or separated from their families.
The international community, including the EU and Britain, remains complicit in this war, while Israeli parents call for a hostage release and ceasefire deal that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted. The children of Gaza have the same rights as any child—to water, food, shelter, education, play, hope, joy, and life. Yet on Sunday, six more children lost their lives: Abdullah Yasser Ahmed, Badr al-Din Qarman, Siraj Khaled Ibrahim, Ibrahim Ashraf Abu Urayban, Karam Ashraf al-Ghussein, and Lana Ashraf al-Ghussein.
