The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has released a report today, titled “Generation Wiped Out: Gaza’s Children in the Crosshairs of Genocide”, highlighting the systematic and deliberate crime of genocide committed by Israel against children in the Gaza Strip. The report sheds light on acts such as killing, serious physical and mental harm, and subjecting children to living conditions intended to destroy them in whole and in part. It also emphasizes the absence of international accountability and the same time the role of Western support and international inaction in perpetuating these crimes.
Lawyer Raji Sourani, Director of PCHR, described the genocidal acts against children saying:
“The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) attacks have deliberately targeted children by striking residential areas and shelters, rendering children the majority of fatalities, with nearly 17,000 children killed so far. A policy of starvation has also been imposed by preventing access to food and water for children and their families, exacerbating their suffering, especially among children and pregnant women. The widespread destruction of homes has displaced nearly two million people from Gaza, leaving them homeless in the bitter winter cold and the scorching heat of summer. Hospitals have been destroyed, medical treatment, medicines and vaccines have been blocked, and schools have been demolished, preventing children’s access to education. All of this is part of a systematic and protracted plan that unequivocally positions Israel and its army as the most morally bankrupt army globally, number one enemy of children worldwide, and undeniable evidence of its perpetration of genocide in statements and action.”
PCHR meticulously and intensively documents the crime of genocide against Gaza Strip population, including the genocide of children. This documentation considers the recurrence of such crimes, the military operations, and their devastating immediate and long-term effects, which are interconnected with explicit public statements from Israel’s top echelons calling for the annihilation of the Palestinian people without distinction. These acts specifically target the next generation with the aim of destroying and erasing it.
PCHR asserts that, since 07 October 2023, Gaza’s children have become direct victims of this unprecedentedly brutal crime. The killing of children, infliction of serious physical and mental harm, and subjection to harsh living conditions that destroy their lives cannot be dismissed as mere collateral damage of military attacks. Instead, these actions are part of a systematic strategy aimed at erasing Palestinian identity and annihilating future generations.
Since 07 October 2023, Gaza’s children have become direct victims of genocide, beginning with the act of killing, which IOF execute with deliberate brutality and a clear intent to target them as part of this genocide. Statements from Israeli leaders have openly proven this approach, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referencing a biblical narrative about the destruction of the Amalekites in a message to Israeli soldiers and officers, saying: “Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.”
Since the start of the Israeli attacks, over 17,000 children in Gaza have been killed, a child is killed on average every 10 minutes in the Gaza Strip. This statistic excludes deaths caused by diseases, hunger, and epidemics. PCHR’s documentation of these killings, supported by testimonies included in its report, highlights the systematic and widespread targeting of children. The report describes the collection of children’s body parts into bags, and instances where their bodies are burned alive by deliberate fires. Many children die in their sleep during moments of false safety, while others perish during dangerous attempts to secure humanitarian aid or while evacuating along routes falsely labeled as “safe” by the Israeli army. Children have also been killed as a result of attacks on hospitals, where power outages lead to the failure of oxygen plants, turning incubators into silent graves. These testimonies are only a few examples of the systematic and widespread crimes committed against children in Gaza, where no distinction is made between civilians and combatants or operatives. This occurs amidst international inaction and a failure to hold perpetrators accountable.
In the context of the second act constituting the crime of genocide, responsibility arises when the perpetrator deliberately inflicts severe bodily or mental harm on members of the group, with the harm stemming from clear intent. According to international judicial precedents, serious bodily harm includes significant health damage, such as disfigurement, or serious injuries to organs resulting in permanent disability or impairment or causing profound effects on the victim’s physical or mental state.
PCHR has documented severe and horrifying injuries sustained by children in Gaza due to Israeli bombings and massive explosions. These injuries include the loss of limbs, severe facial disfigurement caused by direct strikes or intense burns, and spinal injuries leading to complete paralysis or permanent mobility impairments. Additionally, severe brain injuries have affected children’s cognitive and behavioral abilities, while eye injuries leading to partial or complete blindness have significantly hindered their ability to learn and engage in daily activities.
These catastrophic injuries extend beyond physical harm, embedding profound psychological and social scars that hinder children’s recovery and limit their ability to live with dignity or normalcy. Gaza is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history, leaving irreversible impacts on their daily lives and futures. These lifelong struggles trap them in a cycle of bitter experiences, particularly those left with permanent disabilities that deprive them of basic rights to a stable and normal life.
Moreover, PCHR has documented instances of arbitrary arrests of children, during which they were subjected to cruel and inhumane torture. This torture begins with terrorizing children using police dogs, binding them, and blindfolding them for hours before transferring them to detention centers lacking basic standards of dignity where children face brutal physical and psychological abuse, including severe beatings, extinguishing cigarettes on their bodies, and forcing them to stand in painful positions while being deprived of sleep and food. These experiences leave long-term psychological effects, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD, undermining their ability to build stable futures.
As for serious mental harm, causing mental harm does not require physical attack and goes beyond mild symptoms, demanding long-term effects on an individual’s ability to live normally. However, this harm does not have to be permanent or incurable. PCHR has documented harrowing testimonies revealing the extent of severe psychological harm inflicted on children by ongoing Israeli military aggression. These accounts include witnessing scenes of violence and destruction, the heartbreaking loss of family members under tragic circumstances, and repeated forced displacement under conditions lacking the minimum standards of human dignity. These horrifying experiences leave deep psychological scars, limiting the children’s ability to lead normal lives.
The third genocidal act involves deliberately inflicting conditions of life on a specific group calculated to gradually bring about its physical destruction, without necessarily causing the immediate killing of its members. Israel has deliberately committed this genocidal act by subjecting the population of Gaza Strip, including children, to horrific conditions intended to bring about their physical destruction in whole. Many Israeli officials have expressed their clear intent in this context, including Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, who stated: “Gaza will not return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything. The situation will change back 180 degrees” These and other statements clearly affirm the Israeli officials’ intent to destroy the entire population of the Gaza Strip, including innocent children.
Since October 7th, Israel has imposed life conditions on the population of the Gaza Strip, forcing them to face a slow death and gradual destruction. This has been achieved through several systematic policies, including the use of starvation as a weapon of war, depriving Gaza’s children of proper treatment, adequate medical care, and flooding the Gaza Strip with epidemics and contagious diseases by collapsing the healthcare infrastructure, while forcing mass displacement under horrific humanitarian conditions, including the lack of food, medical care, and shelter. Furthermore, Gaza’s children have been stripped of their basic right to education, compounding the devastating impact on the present and future of the next generations in the region.
Children under fire years old, as well as pregnant or breastfeeding women, are the most vulnerable to malnutrition, as their bodies require larger amounts of nutrients during these critical periods. Even if a child survives acute malnutrition, they will often face long-term health impacts, including stunting and delays in both mental and physical development. Acute malnutrition also leads to wasting, where muscles rapidly deteriorate leading to a life-threatening situation. Also, children suffering from stunting and wasting are at an increased risk of death because their weakened bodies are not able to fight off common diseases. Israel’s systematic starvation policy against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has collected the lives of 27 children, noting that many of these cases are not recorded in Gaza hospitals. From mid-January to October 2024, over 319,000 children in the Gaza Strip were screened for malnutrition. Of all screened children, 22,000 have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition, with dozens facing life-threatening medical complications. Furthermore, IOF not only destroyed Gaza’s hospitals and healthcare centers, but also adopted a systematic policy to prevent the travel of patients and injured people from receiving treatment abroad. This policy extends even to sick children requiring continuous medical care, such as cancer patients, those with kidney failure, and children with disabilities. Additionally, the number of injured has significantly risen, forcing doctors to prioritize cases due to the immense pressure on the healthcare system and the severe shortage of resources. This has left many children facing a slow death.
Forced displacement is not considered an act of genocide, but it can become so if it is combined by the deprivation of resources essential for the members of the group such as food, medical care and shelter, which directly contributes to their physical destruction in Gaza. Israel’s military aggression has forcibly displaced at least 1.9 million people—half of whom are children— without providing any haven. Even the areas that the IOF have claimed “safe” became targets of Israeli bombardment, leaving Gaza without any safe shelter. Families are living in hellish conditions, whether in the open air, abandoned buildings, temporary tents, or overcrowded shelters, all of which lack basic necessities such as food and clean water. This situation is exacerbated by the severe lack of hygiene and disinfectants, leading to the spread of diseases amid an almost complete absence of healthcare, especially for children. Additionally, children endure harsh weather conditions, from the biting cold of winter to the scorching heat of summer. They are forced to collect firewood or search for unpotable water under the constant threat of bombing. These combined conditions constitute slow destruction as part of the genocidal policy against the Gaza population.
Israel’s genocide against the Gaza Strip persists for over a year now, systematically and extensively targeting civilians and infrastructure, including educational facilities. Such attacks have deprived hundreds of thousands of students of their right to education, as educational institutions have been destroyed and many students and teachers have been killed. This threatens the future of an entire generation and leaves a long-lasting and devastating impact on children’s rights to education and expression. As of 09 November 2024, 12,700 students and 750 teachers and educational staff have been killed, 92.9% of schools sustained damage, and 84.6% needed to be fully reconstructed or required major rehabilitation to be functional again. Additionally, all schools in Gaza have been closed for 625,000 students, depriving 39,000 students who missed their final year of school of taking their Tawjihi exams. Also, at least 45,000 six-year-old children in the Gaza Strip are deprived of their first year at school. UN independent experts have warned that the destruction of Gaza’s educational infrastructure destroys knowledge for the future and jeopardizes Palestinian identity, all amid a complete lack of security. Moreover, the most optimistic prediction – assuming an immediate ceasefire and rapid international effort to rebuild the education system – is that students will lose two years of learning. If the fighting continues until 2026, the losses could stretch to five years. Despite efforts to launch a visual education platform, these initiatives face immense challenges due to ongoing displacement, lack of security, power outages, internet blackouts, and widespread hunger. Additionally. Gaza’s one million children are suffering from severe social and mental health repercussions such as trauma, loss of beloved ones, and chronic anxiety, which threaten their development and behavior, and increase the risk of school dropouts, forced labor, and early marriage.
Conclusion and Recommendations:
PCHR believes that Israel’s acts against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip violates Israel’s obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This includes directly targeting Gaza’s children and considering them part of Israel’s attempts to erase and annihilate the Palestinian existence. These violations include the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of acts of genocide, conspiracy, direct incitement to commit a genocide, and the failure to hold those responsible accountable.
This is supported by the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s ruling on 26 January 2024 when it has found there was a reasonable basis to believe that Israel is committing acts of genocide against the Palestinian people during its war on Gaza, including children, without any distinction or protection. Accordingly, the ICJ issued a ruling requiring Israel to take measures to prevent the commission of all acts of genocide, including immediate actions to halt genocidal crimes, prevent incitement to genocide, provide humanitarian aid to those in need in Gaza, and preserve evidence related to the crime of genocide. The ICJ has emphasized that the State of Israel remains bound to fully comply with international law, including ensuring the safety and security of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and that all the provisional measures ordered by the ICJ can only be implemented through a complete ceasefire, as affirmed by the international community and UN member states.
PCHR firmly affirms that prosecution of perpetrators of international crimes against the Palestinian people before the International Criminal Court (ICC), stressing the need to put an end to the policy of impunity which fuels the continuation of violations against the Palestinians. PCHR also calls for activating international legal mechanisms with utmost seriousness to ensure justice. The ongoing and shameful inaction of the international community for over a year in pressuring Israel to halt its crimes in the Gaza Strip, from postponing calls for a ceasefire to the continued supply of weapons, is a stain on the world’s conscience and contributes to the escalation of these violations. Despite this, the issuance of arrest warrants by the ICC last month for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity is a glimmer of hope for the victims in achieving the long-awaited justice. Therefore, states must commit to respecting the court’s decision and applying the fundamental principles of international law by executing the arrest warrants and transferring the accused to the ICC to ensure real justice is achieved.
Furthermore, PCHR calls upon the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities towards the Palestinian people by respecting the ICJ ruling in the South Africa v. Israel case, pressuring Israel to implement a ceasefire and end the genocide committed against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and taking immediate action in view of the provisional measures ordered by the court. PCHR also calls on states to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, including the suspension of all agreements related to arms trade and preventing the transfer of dual-use items that may be used in committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinian population. PCHR stresses that the failure of any state to take these measures renders it complicit in this crime, necessitating its accountability and punishment in accordance with Article III of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Any state that refrains from taking these actions is an accomplice in this crime, which requires it to be held accountable and punished in accordance with Article III of the Genocide Convention. Also, states, particularly European, must abide by their legal responsibilities under the Rome Statute by executing the arrest warrants issued by the ICC on 21 November 2024 against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Galant, and ensuring their arrest and transfer to the ICC in The Hague, thereby achieving justice.
PCHR demands the continuation of investigations with all perpetrators of international crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including filing additional charges against Israeli leaders involved in committing these crimes, foremost among them the crime of genocide. Finally, PCHR calls on the international community to respect the advisory opinion of the ICJ regarding Israel’s unlawful presence in the OPT, and to take serious action to end its occupation through effective legal and political measures at the level of the United Nations and its member state
