Israel kills more children in Gaza in 20 days than in previous 23 years

The number of Palestinian children killed by Israel in the past 20 days in the besieged and bombed Gaza Strip is more than the number killed in the previous 23 years, the Spanish newspaper El Pais has reported.

According to Palestinian Ministry of Health figures published on Thursday and Friday, 7,328 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip, including at least 2,941 children.

By contrast, 1,741 children were killed by Israel from the year 2000 up until 6 October 2023, the day before Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel which killed an estimated 1,400 Israelis.

The children killed by Israel in Gaza prior to October 2023 include those who lost their lives in major Israeli attacks on the besieged Palestinian enclave which took place in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021.

The most fatal of these attacks for Palestinian children was 2014’s “Operation Protective Edge” which killed 532 Palestinian children, El Pais reported.

They also include those killed during Great Return March protests at the borders of the besieged territory in 2018 and children killed in the Second Palestinian Intifada which broke out in 2000.

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but kept control of the territory’s airspace, territorial waters, and borders, imposing a strict blockade and plunging tens of thousands of Palestinians into poverty.

One of the most famous child casualties of Israeli forces’ attacks in Gaza was 11-year-old Mohammed Al-Durrah, whose death in September 2000 caused global outrage because it was filmed by a French television crew, who showed the boy’s father, Jamal, helplessly trying to protect him before he was shot dead by Israeli forces.

Both Jamal’s brothers have been killed by Israel’s current indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Forty-seven percent of the 2.3 million population of the Gaza Strip is made up of children under 18.

El Pais pointed out that an 18-year-old in Gaza would have experienced at least five violent conflicts, taking a horrific toll on their mental health.

It said that eight out of ten children in the Gaza Strip reported feeling "emotional distress and grief".