“Nothing justifies the killing of children,” declared Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), on X on Saturday.
He stated that Israel is rendering the besieged territory a “no land” for children and mourned the loss of “young lives” being “cut short in a war not of children’s making”.
“This is a blight on our collective humanity,” Lazzarini asserted.
“Harrowing.
At least 100 children are reported killed or injured every day in #Gaza, since the strikes resumed (on 18 March) according to @UNICEF
Young lives cut short in a war not of children’s making.
Since the war began 1.5 years ago, 15,000 children were reportedly… pic.twitter.com/lIdPx0LyN7
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) April 4, 2025
UNICEF reported that at least 322 children were affirmed to have lost their lives since Israel resumed its aggression on March 18, disrupting a precarious two-month ceasefire that came into effect on January 19.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell voiced on Monday that the ceasefire had provided a “desperately needed lifeline for Gaza’s children and hope for a path to recovery”.
“But children have again been thrust into a cycle of deadly violence and deprivation,” she lamented.
‘Every number symbolizes a life’
On Palestine Children’s Day, observed annually on April 5, the Palestinian Ministry of Education proclaimed that children are the most targeted victims of Israeli aggression, with over 17,000 of them having perished in Gaza since October 2023.
“The figure reflects the profound tragedy children are enduring, with each number symbolizing a life, memories, and experiences lost,” the ministry stated.
The Palestinian group Hamas also denounced what it described as Israel’s policy of “deliberate killing, detention, and torture of children, as well as the deprivation of their fundamental human rights”.
It warned that Israel’s “impunity encourages more aggressive crimes against Palestinian children“.
“Around 1,100 children have been detained by the Israeli army since October 7, 2023, and approximately 39,000 others have lost one or both parents due to the violence,” stated Hamas.
The Israeli occupation “continues to target children through systematic violations, including using them as human shields, denying them education, and attempting to erase their national identity in the 1948 occupied territories through curriculum manipulation, the spread of crime, and the destruction of values,” Hamas added.
![GAZA CITY, GAZA - APRIL 3: Mourners gather after Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on the Shujaiyya neighborhood in Gaza City on April 3, 2025. The siege has taken a heavy toll on women, children, and the elderly. [Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/AA-20250403-37528813-37528794-ISRAELS_ATTACKS_ON_GAZA_CONTINUE-1743809843.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
Data released in a joint declaration by the Palestinian Commission for Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association on Saturday indicated that Israel arrested 1,200 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank since October 7, 2023.
The statement highlighted that child detainees face “torture, starvation, medical neglect, and systematic deprivation on a daily basis”.
These conditions recently led to the death of the first juvenile prisoner since the beginning of the Gaza war, 17-year-old Walid Ahmad from Silwad, located northeast of Ramallah, who died at Megiddo Prison in northern Israel, it stated.
Over 9,500 Palestinians, including women and more than 350 children, are currently incarcerated in Israeli prisons under harsh conditions, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights reports.
Meanwhile, UNRWA stated that over 142,000 Palestinians have been uprooted between March 18 and March 23, warning of an impending humanitarian disaster in Gaza following the collapse of the truce.
Since the inception of the war in Gaza, approximately 1.9 million individuals – including numerous children – have experienced multiple displacement rounds amidst bombardment, fear, and loss,” reads a UNRWA statement on Palestine Children’s Day.
Israel has caused the deaths of over 50,600 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, mostly women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ex-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel is also facing charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its military actions in the enclave.
