RAMALLAH: At least 8,000 Palestinian children were killed by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip and at least 121 others in the occupied West Bank in 2023, according to Defense for Children International (DCIP).

DCIP described the year 2023 as the ‘year of genocide’ for Palestinian children, who have made the majority of the Gaza war causalities.

It said the rate of Palestinian children killed at the hands of Israeli forces in 2023 is unprecedented, noting that the number is expected to significantly increase in light of Israel’s ongoing indiscriminate and direct attacks against residential buildings and civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and schools, its ban on the entry of food, medical and food supplies, and fuel, the severe water shortage and electricity outage, and with thousands of children still reported missing.

DCIP added that Israeli forces and colonists shot and killed 102 Palestinian children with live fire, 14 others were killed in drone strikes, four more by missiles fired from an
Apache attack helicopter, and one child was killed in an Israeli warplane strike.

DCIP said that 84 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7th.

It stressed that Gaza’s health system collapsed completely after major hospitals were placed under tight Israeli siege, patients, wounded, and doctors were forced to evacuate at gunpoint, and as a result of the ongoing Israeli targeting and attacks on the health care infrastructure.

A provisional count of Palestinians killed in Israel’s ongoing aggression on Gaza indicates that 23084 people were killed, 70 percent of whom were children and women.

Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA