Michael Abrahams | Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian children

On January 29, 2024, five-year-old Hind Rami Iyad Rajab and six family members were fleeing from Gaza’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood when Israeli forces opened fire on their vehicle, initially killing her aunt, uncle and three cousins. The only other survivor, Rajab’s 15-year-old cousin Layan Hamadeh, called the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) for help. When the dispatchers called back, Rajab was the only one alive, and she stayed on the line for three hours. She was heard on recordings pleading, “I’m so scared, please come. Come take me. Please, will you come?” Eventually, Rajab, as well as the two Red Crescent ambulance workers who arrived at the scene, were also killed.

Investigators who discovered the bodies found that Rajab’s vehicle had been struck more than 330 times and that the ambulance was shelled. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initially denied involvement, stating that its forces were not present in the area at the time, but admitted responsibility on August 19, 2026 and announced that it had launched a criminal investigation.

Rajab and her cousins are just five of the more than 20,000 children killed in Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023, with thousands more missing, likely buried under rubble. Children represent 30 per cent of all fatalities, and roughly two per cent of Gaza’s pre-war child population has been killed. Even after the ceasefire in October 2025, more than 300 children have been slaughtered. The rate of killing is astounding. In early 2024, the United Nations (UN) reported that the number of children slain in Gaza in just four months was higher than the total number of children killed across all global conflicts combined over the preceding four years, and, this year, the organisation stated that the rate of child casualties in Gaza is “unparalleled across modern conflicts globally”. In addition to the deaths, 44,000 children have been injured, and the Gaza Strip now has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world, with estimates indicating that up to 4,000 children have lost one or more limbs. In war, collateral damage is inevitable, but many child casualties in this conflict appear to be intentional.

Substantial evidence documented in a June report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli forces have deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children in Gaza. The UN Human Rights Office report documented numerous instances in which children were hit by single, high-precision shots from snipers or quadcopter drones, often targeting the head or upper chest.

The IDF employs advanced high-precision weaponry operated by well-trained military personnel. For instance, the DAN 338 sniper rifle is accurate at a distance of up to 1,200 to 1,500 metres. The quadcopters are equipped with high-resolution cameras and night vision, allowing operators to view a screen and clearly identify their targets. A statement from Israeli security officials stated that quadcopters allow “precise strikes beyond visual range, at a level of accuracy that no human sniper, no matter how skilled, can achieve”. At least 70 of the children investigated in the report were shot by quadcopters. Additionally, medical professionals working in Gaza reported treating children with single gunshot wounds while adults standing next to them were unharmed, indicating deliberate targeting. The report concluded: “The killing of a child from a single gunshot wound indicates a high degree of precision in the use of force, suggesting that the shot was carefully aimed rather than incidental or the result of indiscriminate fire.”

The use of lethal force against minors is not confined to Gaza. Data from the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem reported a significant escalation in violence in the West Bank between October 7, 2023 and June 2026. During this time, 241 children and teenagers were killed by Israeli forces there, with minors comprising nearly 25 per cent of all Palestinian fatalities.

The narratives by Israeli officials, adultifying and branding Palestinian children as terrorists, reveal a mindset that facilitates and justifies killing them. For instance, in 2024, while discussing a military raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Knesset member Amit Halevi stated that they killed 150 terrorists there and “at the same time, 300 terrorists were born in the maternity ward”. Following an incident in March 2026 in which Israeli forces killed a Palestinian family (a mother, father, and two young children ages five and seven) inside their car in the West Bank town of Tammun near Jenin, Knesset member Yitzhak Kroizer declared, “even if the collateral damage includes children or women, it doesn’t matter to me”, and that “there are no innocent civilians” and “no innocent children” in Jenin.

Israel’s targeting of Palestinian children is longstanding, exemplified by the 2004 killing of 13-year-old Iman Darweesh Al Hams in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. While walking to school, she entered a “forbidden zone” near an Israeli military watchtower. Soldiers opened fire, wounding her. Despite radio communications from soldiers telling him that she was a “little girl” who was “scared to death”, the unit commander, identified as Captain R, approached her limp, motionless body and emptied his magazine into her at point-blank range to “confirm the kill”, riddling her with 17 to 20 bullets. The commander later stated that he would have killed her even if she were three years old.

Also, such killings usually occur with impunity. For instance, despite facing multiple charges, not only was Captain R acquitted by an Israeli military court but, after his acquittal, he was promoted to the rank of major and, in March 2006, he received the equivalent of roughly US$17,000 in compensation for legal expenses and incarceration.

At least 36 children were killed during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, a heinous act that demands unequivocal condemnation. But the lives of all children are precious and of equal value, and we must also condemn Israel’s relentless and systematic killing of Palestinian children.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on X @mikeyabrahams.