GAZA, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)
Palestinian civil society organizations said on Thursday that Israeli occupation forces have killed more than 19,000 children and wounded 28,000 others since October 7, 2023, a toll they described as the highest in the history of modern conflicts involving children.
The statement was issued by the Palestinian NGO Network on the occasion of World Children’s Day, observed every year on 20 November. The network noted that this year’s commemoration comes as Palestinian children face what it called “the worst humanitarian catastrophe being perpetrated against childhood.”
The network said that official statistics reveal the extent of widespread destruction to the educational environment, with hundreds of schools, kindergartens, and childcare centers in the Gaza Strip completely or partially destroyed. It also documented the presence of more than 56,000 orphaned children who have lost one or both parents.
The organizations called on the United Nations and its specialized agencies, as well as human rights and humanitarian groups, to take urgent action to protect Palestinian children, especially in the Gaza Strip, stressing that they are “direct victims of the occupation’s crimes.”
The statement emphasized that World Children’s Day was established to promote dignity, justice, and basic rights for children, including the right to life, education, health care, and protection from violence, as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1959. Yet, according to the network, Palestinian children “are subjected to every form of violation, even to a methodical campaign of genocide and official measures aimed at erasing their existence.”
The network added that the Israeli occupation continues to detain hundreds of Palestinian children in its prisons “in blatant violation of their most basic human rights,” stressing the need for urgent action to protect them and safeguard their dignity as a “moral and humanitarian duty.”
Calls for accountability and emergency relief
The organizations urged the implementation of international law regarding acts of genocide committed by occupation forces and the prosecution of those responsible. They also called for urgent measures to save children’s lives by providing medical treatment, evacuating critical cases outside the Gaza Strip, and ensuring the entry of food and medicine, particularly amid deteriorating humanitarian conditions caused by ongoing bombardment and the destruction of shelters and schools hosting displaced families.
The network further encouraged international and humanitarian institutions to include children and other vulnerable groups in recovery programs, emergency plans, and humanitarian response efforts, and to provide psychological and social support along with formal and community-based protection programs, ensuring equality and non-discrimination of any kind.
Civil society groups concluded their statement by stressing that protecting Palestinian children is “a true test of the world’s humanity,” calling for immediate action to halt violations and secure a safe future for children in Gaza and across all Palestinian territories.
