The United Nations indicates that at least 100 children were killed or injured every day in Gaza since strikes resumed on March 18, even though the United States highlights continuous support for Israel.
“Nothing justifies the murder of children,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Saturday.
He said that Israel transformed the besieged territory into a “landless” for children and deplored that the “young people” were “interrupted in a war and not the manufacture of children”.
“It’s a task on our common humanity,” said Lazzarini.
“Poignant.
At least 100 children are reported or injured each day #GazaSince the strikes resumed (March 18) according to @Unicef
Young lives are interrupted in a war and not of the manufacture of children.
Since the start of the war 1.5 years ago, 15,000 children have been … pic.twitter.com/lidpx0lyn7
– UNRWA (@unrwa) April 4, 2025
UNICEF said that at least 322 children were killed since Israel had renewed its offensive on March 18, breaking a two-month-old ceasefire that entered into force on January 19.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said on Monday that the ceasefire “provided a desperately necessary life buoy for Gaza children and hope for a path to recovery”.
“But the children were again plunged into a cycle of fatal violence and deprivation,” she said.
“ Each number representing a life ”
Marking Palestine children’s day, observed every year on April 5, the Palestinian Ministry of Education said that the children were among the most targeted victims of the Israeli aggression, with more than 17,000 of them killed in Gaza since October 2023.
The “figure reflects the depth of the tragedy that children are sustainable, each number representing a life, memories and lost experiences,” said the ministry.
The Palestinian group Hamas also condemned what he said was Israel’s policy to “deliberate, detention and torture of children, as well as the deprivation of their fundamental human rights”.
He warned that “the impunity of Israel is encouraging a new climbing of crimes against Palestinian children”.
“About 1,100 children have been detained by the Israeli army since October 7, 2023, and around 39,000 others have lost one or both parents due to violence,” Hamas said in a statement.
The Israeli occupation “continues to target children by systematic crimes, in particular by using them as human shields, depriving them of education and trying to break their national identity in the occupied territories of 1948 by the manipulation of programs, the spread of crime and the destruction of values,” he added.
The data published in a joint declaration by the Palestinian Commission for the Affairs of the detainees, the Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association declared Israel on Saturday had arrested 1,200 Palestinian children of the West Bank occupied since October 7, 2023.
The press release indicates that detainees are subject to “torture, famine, medical neglect and systematic deprivation daily”.
These conditions recently led to the death of the first child prisoner since the start of the Gaza war, Walid Ahmad, 17, from the city of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, who was killed in Megiddo prison in northern Israel, said.
More than 9,500 Palestinians, including women and more than 350 children, are currently detained in Israeli prisons in difficult conditions, according to Palestinian and Israeli reports on human rights.
Meanwhile, UNRWA said more than 142,000 Palestinians had been moved between March 18 and March 23 and warned of another humanitarian disaster in Gaza after the ceasefire collapse.
“Since the start of the war in Gaza, around 1.9 million people – including thousands of children – have experienced a forced displacement repeated in the middle of bombing, fear and loss,” said a statement published by UNRWA on Palestine Day.
Israel has killed more than 50,600 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, most women and children.
The International Criminal Court published arrest mandates last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for his war against the enclave.
