Effect of the Israel–Hamas war on children in the Gaza Strip

Wounded child at Al-Shifa Hospital

As a result of the Israel–Hamas war, children have been disproportionately impacted in the Gaza Strip, where 40% of the population is 14 or under. On 13 November, UNICEF reported that more than 700,000 children in Gaza were displaced. A dire humanitarian crisis, with reports of children suffering from a serious epidemic of gastroenteritis due to the lack of clean water, led to concerns amongst health officials and aid organizations. Speaking to reporters early in the conflict, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that "Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day."

Save the Children, UNICEF, and Palestinian health officials described children being left with permanent disabilities, mental health issues, and amputations, with thousands experiencing dehydration, malnutrition, respiratory, and skin diseases. By late-March 2024, an estimated 13,000 children in Gaza had been killed, with thousands more buried under rubble. The UNICEF deputy director called the conditions of children in Gaza the "most horrific" he had ever seen. The ongoing crisis also impacted routine vaccinations, leaving thousands of children at risk, and further compounded challenges included inadequate shelter, a lack of adequate winter coats, and the psychological toll on children's mental health.

Health

See also: Timeline of the Gaza Strip healthcare collapse and Healthcare in the State of Palestine

Since 2007, Israel had implemented a strict land and sea blockade that had prevented items such as food and medicine from moving into the Gaza Strip, with the health system struggling before the war.

Ahmed al-Fara, the head of pediatrics at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, stated due to the lack of water during the war, he was witnessing the "most serious epidemic of gastroenteritis" among children he had ever seen. Catherine M. Russell, the executive director of UNICEF, toured Gaza on 15 November, stating many children were lacking medical care. On 28 December, UNOCHA stated 50 percent of all children in the Gaza Strip were experiencing dehydration, malnutrition, respiratory and skin diseases. Cases of diarrhea in children under the age of five has increased by about 2,000% since October 7 per a UNICEF report. A UN spokesperson indicated that between 7 October 2023 and 4 January 2024, disease had skyrocketed in Gaza with more than 400,000 cases of infectious disease reported, which included about 180,000 people with upper respiratory infections and more than 136,000 cases of diarrhea, with half of cases presenting in children under 5.

According to statistics published by the World Health Organization (WHO) only about 30% of medics were still working due to the widespread affects of the war in Gaza. An amputee patient in a southern Gazan hospital stated that medication comes through the crossing into Gaza every four days but its not a guarantee that patients receive medication, and that in some hospitals patients have to pay for medication and food up front. Other medications such as insulin pens were temporarily placed on restricted items to be allowed into Gaza by the Israeli government officials. This caused the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine Jamie McGoldrick to state; "On the goods that are being prohibited, it’s a full range...Some of it is medical material such as basic drugs and material for treating not just trauma but for chronic illnesses...One example would be most recently the pens that are used for insulin for children" A Canadian doctor returning from two weeks in Gaza stated he had seen the "sickest child I had ever seen in my medical career".

Vaccinations

See also: COVID-19 pandemic in the State of Palestine § Vaccines

Shortly after the 7 October attacks and Israel's retaliation in October 2023, preventable diseases were expected to rise due to disruption in vaccination abilities. Childhood vaccinations had already dropped due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and experts cautioned about the spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19 and measles that could be contained primarily with vaccinations.

In mid-December 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry stated it had run out of vaccinations for children, which would have catastrophic repercussions. An UNOCHA representative stated the organization was having difficulty delivering childhood vaccines. On 1 January it was reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry that Israel had allowed and would facilitate the transport of vaccines into Gaza through the Rafa crossing. It was cautioned that the disbursement of the vaccines would be difficult due to displacement and destruction of infrastructure. On 29 January, UNICEF reported that 16,000 children were at risk of missing routine vaccinations.

Mental health

Injured child, 17 October 2023

Before the war, there were high numbers of children in Gaza that had documented high levels of emotional distress and mental illness, with a study in 2011 found that among Palestinian children PTSD rates were between 23-70%, while a UNICEF study in 2021 found one in three children in Gaza needed care for conflict-related trauma. Save the Children reported serious signs of mental health issues among children in Gaza in West Bank and in Israel. Describing the impact of war on children's mental health, the Save the Children director of humanitarian policy stated the war had "starved and robbed any sense of safety and security". On 2 February 2024, UNICEF reported that one million children, or nearly every child in Gaza, was in need of mental health support. Evacuated children were found to be suffering from psychological trauma.

Mohammed Brighieth, a professor at Birzeit University, warned of the psychological impact of the war on children, stating, "The children of Gaza live somewhere between the process of psychological trauma and certain death." A 5-year-old whose entire immediate family was killed by an Israeli airstrike while evacuating to Rafah, was described as being starkly different by his grandmother, he was reportedly in shock, does not talk much, and was scared of any sounds. Parents in Rafah purchased songbirds for their children to help them cope with the constant sounds of bombing. On 21 February, the chair of the Norwegian Refugee Council warned that all children in Gaza would likely suffer from trauma due to the war.

On 23 February 2024, the director of Doctors Without Borders reported, "Psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us that they would prefer to die." Save the Children found, "Children in Gaza are going through a period of mass-scale shock and grief. This war and the physical and mental scars it is leaving on children is further eroding their resilience."

Hypothermia

On 16 January, doctors reported children weakened by starvation were dying from hypothermia. An Action Aid coordinator stated on 27 January that children without winter coats were suffering from the cold and rainfall of the winter months, with new commercial products prevented from being brought in. An Al Jazeera correspondent reported he had witnessed children sleeping in cold, mud-filled tents. One father stated in an interview on 2 February 2024, " It’s so freezing. Even my children can’t. One to two blankets aren’t enough at all. I have a newborn baby. I fear he will be ill every other day." Children in Rafah were dressed in remaining PPE equipment from the Covid-19 pandemic in order to keep warm. In Deir el-Balah, children burned books to keep warm.

Starvation

Main article: Gaza Strip famine

On 3 January 2024, UNICEF chief Catherine M. Russell stated many children in Gaza were facing severe acute malnutrition. On 5 January, UNICEF found 90 percent of children under the age of two were eating two or fewer food groups a day. On 3 February, Hani Mahmoud, an Al Jazeera journalist in Rafah, stated, "We’re seeing children roaming around in Rafah looking for scraps of food." In early January 2024 UNICEF reported that around 90% of children in Gaza under 2 were subjected to severe food poverty, which had jumped from 80% about two weeks prior.

Price jumps have also been seen by those attempting to purchase food, with a caregiver purchasing through a procurement company infant formula which had cost him $1,680 before the war, but paying $2,160 in February 2024. The United Nations stated on 10 February that 10 percent of children under five-years-old were suffering from acute malnourishment. One mother reported feeding her newborn using date paste. On 19 February, UNICEF found that nearly 16 percent of children in northern Gaza under two-years-old were "acutely malnourished", with 3 percent suffering from severe wasting. In early March 2024 UNICEF reported that over 90% of children aged 6–23 months and pregnant or breastfeeding women face severe food poverty with access to two or fewer food groups a day.

Child malnutrition is varied throughout Gaza, with northern Gaza experiencing worse food shortages then southern Gaza leading to a child malnutrition rate three times higher according to the WHO. In March 2024, 10 children died at Kamal Adwan Hospital from dehydration and malnutrition, leading UNICEF to state, "Now, the child deaths we feared are here and are likely to rapidly increase unless the war ends and obstacles to humanitarian relief are immediately resolved". Doctors at Kamal Adwan stated all staff could give malnourished and dehydrated newborns was saline or sugar solution, with one pediatrician stating, "My message is an appeal to the entire world to intervene and save all the children". A severely malnourished 10-year-old boy named Yazan al-Kafarneh died from starvation. On 6 March, WHO secretary-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of "children who survived bombardment but may not survive a famine".

The Palestinian Red Crescent found parents were going without food in order to feed "their hungry children amidst food insecurity and shortage of available food". Doctors at the Kamal Adwan Hospital stated malnourished infants in the ICU had become the "new normal". One doctor at Kamal Adwan stated, "Babies reach critical and severe degrees of dehydration and acidemia disorders and ultimately death."

However, there are accusations in Palestinian media that Hamas is responsible for the food crisis in Gaza. A Fatah TV anchor reported that throughout the war, Hamas deliberately attacked and killed aid workers in order to control aid distribution, stolen the food and water for itself, and caused food prices to skyrocket.

Hygiene

In December 2024 ActionAid reported that there was little water for washing and some shelters only had one shower for every 700 individuals and one toilet for every 150. UNICEF announced on 7 March 2024 that they were distributing wellbeing kits to adolescent girls in Rafah, who reported being unable to "shower more than once a week. The shelters are crowded with people, and there is little water. It is difficult to maintain personal hygiene".

It was reported in late February 2024 that there were 690,000 menstruating women and children in Gaza, that have limited access to menstrual hygiene supplies. Some women and children have utilized period blocking pills, but those can be hard to find and many are unable to take them due to medical reasons. One girl sheltering in a UNRWA school in Maghazi told reporters that she had begun washing used pads to reuse them, while another indicated that due to the stress of the war she had been having her period more often, about twice a month. A mom of five daughters told reporters that they were all utilizing Pampers diapers for their periods, and had to cut the diapers in half due to costs while others have utilized rags, old clothes, towels or corners of tents causing chafing and skin infections.

Casualties

Main article: Casualties of the Israel–Hamas war

Breakdown of deaths by age and gender (analysis by professors Michael Spagat and Daniel Silverman), November 2023

  Men and boys over 14 (35.3%)

  Women and girls over 14 (24.1%)

  Children under 14 (33.8%)

  Elderly, above 60 (6.8%)

Wounded child at al-Shifa Hospital, October 2023

Dead and missing

By 3 December, an estimated 6,150 children had been killed in the conflict. More children were killed in Gaza in two and a half months than the total of children killed in all conflicts around the world in the previous three years combined. By mid-January 2024, an estimated 10,000 children in Gaza had been killed, with thousands more buried under rubble. By 5 February 2024, Defense for Children International estimated that 12,100 children had been killed in Gaza. Children have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, even in areas deemed a "safe zone" by the IDF, such as when a family of twelve were killed in a safe zone in Mawasi in southern Gaza, of which 10 were children. In March 2024, the United Nations stated that more children had died in Gaza between October 2023 and February 2024 than the sum of all global conflicts from 2019 to 2022. Catherine M. Russell, the head of UNICEF, stated, "We haven’t seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world".

Some parents reported speaking to their children about what to do if one or both of their parents were killed, such as where important documents are and where to find aid or shelter. Hospital and emergency workers in Gaza noted that parents and relatives of some children wrote on children's bodies, mostly on their legs and abdomens, so the children would be identifiable if found in the rubble or get lost. One employee stated; "Many of the children are missing, many get here with their skulls broken… and it’s impossible to identify them, only through that writing do they get identified." The bodies of some children buried under rubble remained unrecovered. In one case, a newborn was rescued from under rubble after surviving a bombing. In another, a girl was rescued after being buried for more than 40 hours. UNICEF has warned that the war has become a war on children, as in late December 2023 minors were estimated to account for 40% of those killed in Gaza, comparative to past conflicts were minors would be about 20%.

Police also killed a 13-year-old boy and beat and fired at teenagers that tried to get supplies from aid trucks. In February 2024, an American doctor returning from the Gaza Strip wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times stating that she had witnessed children being deliberately targeted by Israeli snipers, writing, "On one occasion, a handful of children, all about ages 5 to 8, were carried to the emergency room by their parents. All had single sniper shots to the head... None of these children survived." The former head of Mossad told Kan that everyone over the age of four "supports Hamas".

Warning of the joint threats of starvation and disease, a UNICEF spokesperson stated on 20 February, "The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza". Following an Israeli airstrike on Deir el-Balah, an emergency first responder stated, "We collected body parts of women and children... What have they done to deserve to die like this? What did this young girl do to Israel to be dismembered like this?" A Canadian doctor returning from a week in Gaza stated she had seen crimes against humanity, including small children "dying of hunger, bombs, sniper shots." A father and two twin infants were killed in an Israeli airstrike, after the father and the babies' mother had struggled to conceive for eleven years. Israeli drone footage released in March 2024 showed Israeli snipers killing an unarmed boy in Jabalia. In April 2024, doctors said they were seeing "a steady stream of children, elderly people and others who were clearly not combatants with single bullet wounds to the head or chest."

Death of Hind Rajab

Main article: Killing of Hind Rajab

In February 2024, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that a paramedic unit had gone missing attempting to rescue six-year-old Hind Rajab. In released audio of the emergency call, Rajab is heard telling the paramedics, "I'm so scared. Please come," with gunfire in the background immediately after the family's car had been hit by an Israeli tank. On 3 February, the media director of the Palestinian Red Crescent stated only Israeli forces knew what had happened to Hind. On 5 February, one week after the attack, Rajab's mother stated, "I have been appealing to the whole world, but no one moved a finger." Her grandfather stated, "We want to know her fate, whatever it was." On 8 February, ten days after Rajab went missing, the Palestinian Red Crescent stated, "We want answers, we want the truth, we need the painful silence to end." On 10 February 2024, Rajab was found dead along with the bodies of the two paramedics.

Injured

Medic carried wounded child

Doctors warned children who survived Israeli airstrikes were left with permanent disabilities and trauma. Save the Children reported 10 children a day in Gaza had lost their limbs, which would result in a lifetime of medical needs. A UNICEF spokesperson James Elder was quoted after returning from Gaza in mid-December 2023, that around 1,000 children had lost one or both legs since the 7 October attacks and the start of the war. According to the British doctor Ghassan Abu-Sittah, "This is the biggest cohort of pediatric amputees in history". Many of the surgeries performed on the children and other patients were performed without anesthesia due to severe shortages of medical supplies in Gaza, according to the WHO.

In mid December 2023, a teenager's amputation performed without anesthesia on her families kitchen table by her uncle who is a doctor went viral on social media. She and a sibling had climbed to the top of the building to call their father who is overseas before the building was reportedly struck by IDF tank fire, and she was rushed inside to her uncle by her cousins.

A WHO Emergency Medical Team coordinator has also cautioned that due to lack of medical expertise and time, some of the amputations done were unnecessary or due to a time delay. A British doctor who spent time in Gaza through a medical charity and returned to the United Kingdom in December 2023 highlighted the concerns of poor hygiene and medical supply shortages that could cause wounds to become worse and make some un-survivable. This was echoed by UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who recounted seeing a child who had been stuck in a vehicle at an Israeli military checkpoint for days due to delays, with a wound that had started to decompose. While other children's stumps after amputation had to be re-opened after infections had set in.

A report by Save the Children on 12 January stated children were "enduring unspeakable horrors, including life-changing injuries, burns, disease, inadequate medical care, and losing their parents and other loved ones". A Doctors Without Borders doctor stated children were suffering from "terrible injuries, huge burns covering 50-70% of their body and massively broken limbs". An 11 year old speaking to reporters about her injuries which included an amputated leg and with the other severely injured, in early January 2024 expressed her hope in getting an artificial limb, and lamented how her life has become "ugly and sad" after the injury. A doctor with Doctors Without Borders reflected that even after working in many war zones, he has seen more injured children in Gaza, stating; "It was really shocking for me because I have never seen babies. So many babies victim of trauma, of war, with war wounds".

Orphaned

Aid workers coined the term WCNSF, meaning Wounded Child No Surviving Family. In mid-December 2023, the Euro-Med Monitor estimated at least 25,000 children had lost one or both parents. UNICEF reported that extended families were taking on the responsibility of caring for orphaned children. UNICEF expressed further concerns about difficulties with orphaned children, stating, "The youngest ones very often cannot say their name and even the older ones are usually in shock so it can be extremely difficult to identify them". Additional difficulties have been identified as the intensification of Israeli airstrikes and invasion into Gaza and rapidly changing situation within Gaza, with efforts to open communication with hospitals and health staff hindered by the war. Per UNICEF the standard system to identify, document, trace and reunite children with relatives or siblings was barely functional in early December 2023. The UN has also estimated that about 40% of all people in Gaza have lost ID cards and documents due to the war, which has also hindered reunification and identification.

Many orphaned children recount their difficulty at processing or saying goodbye to their parents and siblings after their deaths, due to lack of funeral or memorial services, uncertainty of the future and delay at being told due to medical fragility. Humanitarian organizations reported difficulties with orphaned children who were too young to know their own names. Older siblings also took on responsibility for caring for their younger siblings after being orphaned.

In early February 2024, UNICEF estimated that at least 17,000 children had been orphaned. In March 2024, Israel brought 95 Palestinian orphans from Rafah to the SOS Children's orphanage in Bethlehem at the request of the German government. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich condemned the temporary measure, stating, "Any mercy to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful".

A believed to be days old infant was found in a tree near her destroyed presumed home after an Israeli airstrike killed the rest of the family in November 2023, she was known as Unknown and cared for in Emirati Hospital in Rafah, before being adopted by a pediatrician at the hospital. A 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy was orphaned and had grenade shrapnel lodged in his brain, after the IDF raided the family's home and executed his parents. A 15-year-old girl was rescued from the rubble three days after an Israeli bulldozer tore her home down with her family still inside, killing everyone but her.

Displacement

Main article: Gaza Strip evacuations

On 13 November, UNICEF stated more than 700,000 children in Gaza were displaced. On 22 November 2023, UNICEF reported "increasing numbers" of unaccompanied children had been identified evacuating from northern to southern Gaza by themselves. On 28 November, James Elder, a UNICEF spokesperson, stated wounded children were sheltering outdoors in car parks and gardens.

By December 2023, Save the Children reported that it is likely that about 893,000 children were internally displaced in Gaza, average of 12,000 children a day forced to flee their homes, with some having to evacuate multiple times. Of the about 1.9 million displaced people in southern Gaza children make up almost 50% of the evacuees. On 9 February, Catherine Russell stated, "UNICEF is urgently calling on the parties to refrain from military escalation in Rafah Governate in Gaza where over 600,000 children and their families have been displaced – many of them more than once."

Medical evacuation

Evacuation planning for children with medical concerns such as cancer out of Gaza and to continue treatment began in mid-October 2023, with discussions and negotiations among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Palestinian health officials along with World Health Organization and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital representatives. Many families and officials involved in Gaza have described a difficult process with damage to transportation avenues and communication networks causing many to miss crossing or pick up times, while others were not allowed to evacuate with their children. After repeated airstrike damage and lack of fuel at least two dozen premature babies were evacuated out of Gaza hospitals to Egypt to continue the specialized care they needed. Those that were evacuated were suffering from life-threatening conditions including dehydration, vomiting, hypothermia and sepsis due to the lack of medicine and fuel. Injured children were also evacuated with Turkey offering treatment and resources to at least two groups of children that were receiving intensive care treatment.

It was reported in early March 2024, that about 300 children had been evacuated to Qatar with the majority being wounded and needing treatment but some being parents or a supporter. Many described the separation from family members as excruciating, with some children being unable to talk to their parents, living with relatives in Gaza or having to monitor and parent younger siblings while their parents care for their injured siblings.

Birth and pregnancy

Further information: Women in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war § Gaza Strip

Wounded infant at Al-Shifa Hospital, 11 October 2023

An estimated 150 babies were born in Gaza per day since the start of the conflict. A pediatric doctor at the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, stated the number of premature babies born in Gaza had risen sharply. Newborn babies receiving specialized care in Israel and the West Bank while their mothers were trapped in Gaza. Oxfam stated newborn babies were dying from preventable diseases such as infection, hypothermia, diarrhea, and dehydration. By mid-December, parents were struggling to feed newborn babies, as mothers had insufficient nutrition to breastfeed. Newborn babies born during the conflict died in airstrikes, though some were rescued from the rubble. A UNOCHA representative stated she had met a woman forced to give birth in the street, and that the baby had died. One woman reported being unable to bathe her newborns more than ten days after their birth, due to the lack of clean water. Mothers reported extreme difficulty locating or affording milk and diapers for their newborns.

In December 2023, an Israeli missile strike on the largest fertility clinic in Gaza destroyed more than 4,000 embryos and 1,000 specimens of unfertilized eggs and sperm.

On 18 January 2024, Natalia Kanem, the executive director of the UN Population Fund, spoke at the World Economic Forum at Davos, stating the situation was the "worst nightmare" the UNPF representative had ever witnessed, as there were 180 women giving birth daily, sometimes on the streets of Gaza, as the territory's health system collapsed. On 17 January, Care International reported a 300 percent increase in the rate of miscarriage in Gaza since the start of Israel's bombing. UNICEF reported on 19 January that 20,000 babies had been born in the Gaza Strip since 7 October. UNICEF described each birth as a baby being "delivered into hell", and stated "humanity cannot allow this warped version of normal to persist any longer." The UN Women's agency reported that since the start of the conflict, two mothers in Gaza had been killed every hour, every day. WHO reported an increase in stress-induced stillbirths.

Doctors Without Borders stated that women were giving birth in plastic tents, and that those undergoing C-sections were being released within hours. It also reported that women were being turned away from hospitals due to overcrowding, with some forced to birth in public restrooms. Doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital performed an emergency c-section on a deceased pregnant woman in February 2024, after which they performed a fetal cardiac resuscitation; however, the baby did not survive. In April 2024 doctors in Rafah preformed a similar emergency c-section after an IDF bombardment targeted a housing block in Rafah, the baby survived in critical condition before dying after 5 days. Her mother, father and 3-year-old sister had all been killed in the bombing.

The Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling reported women were suffering from birth complications and a lack of both postpartum care and newborn vaccines. The UN Population Fund stated that newborn babies were dying because mothers were unable to access prenatal or postnatal care. According to a UNICEF State of Palestine Humanitarian Situation report, from early March 2024 at least 5,500 pregnant women do not have access to pre or post natal check ups due to the continued airstrike and lack of safe shelter. Doctors at the Al-Helal Al Emirati Hospital reported "chaos and suffering" due to the large influx of displaced people arriving to deliver their babies.

Premature babies

Main article: 2023 Gaza Strip preterm births

Injured newborn, 17 October 2023

The plight of Gaza's premature babies gained global attention. In late October, Gaza's premature babies faced a critical situation as Medical Aid for Palestinians and UNICEF warned that 130 infants were at risk of death due to a hospital fuel shortage caused by Israel's siege. The lack of fuel led to power outages, endangering premature babies in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Despite assurances from the IDF to assist in evacuations, the Gaza Health Ministry reported a lack of evacuation mechanisms, resulting in the deaths of several infants.

The situation escalated in mid-November when Israel launched a raid on al-Shifa Hospital. Evacuations eventually occurred, facilitated by the Palestinian Red Crescent, World Health Organization, and UNOCHA, with 31 premature babies moved to southern Gaza, with most then to Egypt. Not all infants were accompanied by their parents, and two died at al-Shifa before the evacuation.

The distress extended to Al-Nasr Children's Hospital, bombed by the IDF in early November, where medical workers had to leave babies in incubators during evacuation. Video footage later revealed the aftermath, with five premature babies found dead in their incubators. The IDF initially denied responsibility, though an Israel official was heard providing assurances to evacuate the hospital in a released audio. In mid-December, a military siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital worsened the situation, as IDF soldiers reportedly prevented staff from supporting 12 babies in intensive care.

In April 2024, a World Health Organization spokeswoman stated, "Different doctors particularly in the maternity hospitals are reporting that they’re seeing a big rise in children born [with] low birth weight and just not surviving the neonatal period because they are born too small".

Education

Further information: School airstrikes in the Israel–Hamas war

Education in the Gaza Strip is seen as a point of pride and a high priority. More than 95% of the children aged between 6-12 were attending school before the war, with the majority graduating from high school. In December 2023, Jonathan Crick, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Jerusalem stated that there is absolutely no form of education or schooling in the Gaza Strip, and the about 625,000 school age children in the Strip are being deprived of an education due to war. In January 2024, the United Nations reported that children in Gaza would lose at least one year of education due to the war. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, the war has caused the death of about 4,327 students and injured about 7, 819 others by January 2024. Additionally at least 200 teachers have been killed and more than 500 injured by December 2023 with the number increasing to 231 teachers and administrators killed and 756 wounded by January 2024.

Schools were closed at the start of the war, and underwent sustained bombing by the Israeli military, while others, such as the Israa University, were occupied and then destroyed by the Israeli military. By mid-December 2023 about 352 school buildings had been damaged, which is over 70% of the Strip's education infrastructure, with others being utilized to hold evacuated individuals and interiors utilized for fuel and survival. Some teachers attempted to continue lessons as they could, in courtyards and other areas not utilized by evacuated populations, with one teacher calling it an act of defiance and a small return to normal. On 22 February, however, a Save the Children representative stated, "Even if the war were to end tomorrow, education can not just resume. More than half of Gaza’s schools have either been destroyed or are too damaged to even function".

Allegations of child use by Hamas and PIJ

See also: Misinformation in the Israel–Hamas war § IDF reliability as a source

In October 2023, video of Hamas training school-aged Gaza children was published, and described as "cynical indoctrination of Palestinian children" on "military-style training camps". The IDF has accused Hamas of using child soldiers and of positioning children on the frontlines while its operatives hide in shelters, including to deliver explosive devices and to scout the battlefield in order to “assess the damage” on battlefields. Israel officials have raised claims that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had for years run summer camps in the Gaza Strip where children underwent military training. According to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, a unit of the Israeli ministry of defense,"a senior Hamas militant" said that Hamas used children to carry explosives. The use and recruitment of children under 15 as soldiers is a war crime, and the IDF claimed that "over 170 minors are identified as terrorist operatives in the Gaza Strip". The IDF released photos that they said showed children armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, certificates of appreciation for the children and active veterans associating them with the Hamas organisation and Islamic Jihad.

According to Israel, Hamas sent over one hundred children and women to a compound the IDF was targeting to act as human shield in November 2023. Additional sources stated the use of children by Hamas as human shields.

Israel has reported that the IDF has uncovered weapons stored in children's room. Israel also said that they had found entrances to multiple Hamas tunnels near and under children's beds during the war.

According to Israel, children are also used by Hamas to scout and observe the IDF forces, reporting activity, locations, and extent of the forces. in some cases baby carriages are used by women observers so they will not raise suspicion. An IDF officer said that the IDF will not shoot or pursuit children that unusually appear in the battlefield.

Reactions

Meirav Ben-Ari, an Israeli Knesset member, stated, "The children in Gaza brought it upon themselves." Far-right Israeli Nation Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for the death of any child or woman who got too close to the border during a debate with Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi, claiming that "We cannot have women and children getting close to the border... anyone who gets near must get a bullet [in the head],". Ben-Gvir claimed that the open-fire policy he was advocating for was based on the perceived use of women and children by Hamas to target Israel.

During an interview on Israeli television, a former Mossad official Rami Igra who had headed the agencies "Captive and Missing Division", claimed that there were no uninvolved civilians in Gaza. He raised claims that "anyone over four is a Hamas supporter" and that only those under four could be considered children, while anyone above that age could starve.

The head of a Seder yeshiva in Jaffa; Rabbi Eliyahu Mali stated that the ongoing war was a mitzvah war and that not a soul shall live in Gaza as they will all grow up to become Hamas. When asked about babies and children in context with his comments, he stated; "Babies too?...The same thing. You can't be clever with the Torah. Today he's a baby, tomorrow he's a fighter. There are no questions here. Today's terrorists were 8-year-old children in the previous operation. So you can't To be satisfied here. That's why the Gaza law is different here."

In Gaza, a father whose one-year-old child was killed in an Israeli bombing stated, "This is a crime in which everyone participated. The US veto participated in this crime as did those Arabs and Muslims who failed to support us". A boy wounded in an Israeli attack stated, "I don’t know why they attacked me. They are picking fights against the children of Palestine. Why?"

By children in Gaza

In November 2023, a group of children outside al-Shifa Hospital held a press conference asking the world for an end to the war. A small group of children in Rafah held their own protest in advance of a planned Rafah offensive in February 2024, holding signs in English that read "We refuse to die" and "Save us from this genocide". Children in Rafah again held their own protest against the Gaza Strip famine on 6 March, holding a banner reading "Stop our daily death".

International and domestic organizations

UNICEF spokesperson Toby Fricker stated, "There is no safe place for children anywhere across the strip right now." On 19 December, the United Nations stated Gaza was "by far the most dangerous place in the world to be a child". James Elder, a UNICEF spokesperson, called the conflict in Gaza a "war on children." On 6 January 2024, Tanya Haj-Hassan, a doctor with Doctors Without Borders, stated children in Gaza were "dying in every way possible." On 18 January 2024, the deputy executive director of UNICEF stated the suffering of children in Gaza were the "most horrific conditions I have ever seen." On 2 February 2024, the UNICEF chair stated, "The situation for children in Gaza grows bleaker every day. The world cannot abandon them." On 5 March, UNICEF called the war on Gaza "a test of human conscience" and stated that the lack of humanitarian aid in the north was worsening children's health situation. Adele Khodr, UNICEF's Middle East regional director, stated on 19 March: "The world’s inaction is shocking as more children succumb to a slow death."

In an open letter to the United Kingdom government the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) called the perceived systematic targeting of universities, schools, laboratories and libraries as a component of a genocidal strategy aimed at destroying the Palestinian educations system in Gaza. The chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child stated on 8 February, "The rights of children living under the state of Israel’s effective control are being gravely violated at a level that has rarely been seen in recent history." The Gulf Cooperation Council called on the UN Human Rights Council to "shoulder their responsibility in ending the tragedy of the children in Gaza and securing their right to live, safety, and protection". The UN Population Fund stated in late-March 2024 that "Pregnant women and new mothers face a constant struggle to keep themselves and their newborns alive." In response to reports that one-third of under-two-year-olds in northern Gaza were acutely malnourished, UNICEF's James Elder, stated, "That is a terrifying number".

Politicians and officials

Brian Mast, a United States House representative, stated that the babies killed in the Gaza Strip were not innocent civilians. Qatar's prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani stated, "I think that we should all unite behind stopping this war, saving those lives, saving those children". Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated Israel was killing children under "the pretext of fighting Hamas". German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock stated, "There are also children who have lost their parents. Imagine our own children living without any parents, any water, any food".

Media

According to The Guardian, the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, the bloodiest of the wars Gaza had experienced in the 21st century, had a catastrophic effect on children in Gaza and weeks of sustained air strikes and explosions have contributed to their psychological destruction. Following 16 days of bombardment, children developed severe trauma, with symptoms including convulsion, aggression, bed-wetting, and nervousness. 90% of children in pediatric hospitals in Gaza exhibited or reported symptoms of anxiety, the majority exhibited post-traumatic stress symptoms, and 82% reported fears of imminent death.

See also

• Children in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
• Effect of World War I on children in the United States
• Women in the Israel–Hamas war
• Humanitarian aid during the Israel–Hamas war
• Israeli war crimes