Israeli media, quoting report by Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP), has admitted 2021 the deadliest year for Palestinian children.
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It announced 86 Palestinian children have been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since January making 2021 the deadliest year on record for Palestinian children since 2014.
Israeli forces killed 76 Palestinian children, including 61 in the Gaza Strip and 15 others in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Armed Israeli settlers killed two Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Most recently, 15-year-old Mohammad Nidal Younis Mousa succumbed to his wounds on December 6, hours after a private Israeli security guard shot him.
Under international law, intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present. However, investigations and evidence collected by DCIP regularly suggest that Israeli forces use lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount to extrajudicial or willful killings.
Israeli forces killed 60 Palestinian children during Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip in May 2021, dubbed Operation Guardian of the Walls, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
During the 11-day military assault, Israeli forces killed Palestinian children using tank-fired shells, live ammunition, and missiles dropped from weaponized drones and U.S.-sourced warplanes and Apache helicopters.
Six children have been reportedly killed on May 10, the first day of hostilities, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip by an Israeli airstrike, according to DCIP’s investigation.
“Israeli warplanes and weaponized drones bombarded densely populated civilian areas killing Palestinian children sleeping in their beds, playing in their neighborhoods, shopping at stores near their homes, and celebrating Eid Al-Fitr with their families,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “The international community’s lack of political will to hold Israeli officials accountable guarantees that Israeli soldiers will continue to unlawfully kill Palestinian children with impunity.”
International humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks and requires all parties to an armed conflict to distinguish between military targets, civilians, and civilian objects. Israel as the occupying power in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the Gaza Strip, is required to protect the Palestinian civilian population from violence.
The most recent spike in child killings occurred in 2018 when Israeli forces and settlers killed Palestinian children at an average pace exceeding one child per week. That year, 57 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces and settlers. The majority of those killings occurred during the March of Return protests in the Gaza Strip.
Since 2000, 2,198 Palestinian children have been killed as a result of Israeli military and settler presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, according to DCIP's documentation.
