The Palestinian NGO Network confirmed on Thursday that the Israeli occupation has killed more than 19,000 children and injured 28,000 others since October 7, 2023, in what it described as the highest toll in the history of modern conflicts against children.
The network’s statement came in a special commemoration of Universal Children’s Day, which falls on November 20 each year, noting that this occasion comes at a time when Palestinian children are living through “the worst humanitarian catastrophe perpetrated against childhood.”
The network stated that official statistics reveal the widespread destruction of the educational environment, with hundreds of schools, kindergartens, and childcare centers in the Gaza Strip suffering total or partial destruction. It also documented the existence of more than 56,000 orphaned children who have lost one or both parents.
The network called on the United Nations and its specialized agencies, as well as human rights and humanitarian organizations, to take urgent action to protect Palestinian children, especially in the Gaza Strip, considering them “direct victims of the occupation’s crimes.”
