A Devastating Year for Palestinian Children in Gaza and the West Bank
The year 2025 marked another catastrophic chapter for Palestinian children. According to documentation collected by Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP), minors across Gaza and the occupied West Bank were subjected to killing, starvation, torture, forced displacement, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearance.
Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, combined with intensified repression in the West Bank, has systematically stripped Palestinian children of their fundamental rights to life, safety, health, and childhood.
Despite mounting evidence of grave violations of international law, global political leaders largely failed to ensure accountability. As a result, Palestinian children remained unprotected while collective punishment, siege conditions, and detention abuses escalated.
DCIP Director Khaled Quzmar stated that 2025 represented a year in which Palestinian minors faced daily exposure to violence, deprivation, and fear, describing the situation as the culmination of decades of entrenched impunity.
Killings and Severe Injuries in the West Bank
In 2025, Israeli forces and settlers killed 54 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, according to DCIP documentation.
Israeli military raids frequently involved live ammunition in densely populated civilian areas. Several cases illustrate the pattern:
• An eight year old girl was shot in the head while standing inside her home during a raid, resulting in permanent vision loss.
• A thirteen year old boy was shot multiple times near a military position and denied medical access while still alive.
• A sixteen year old was critically injured after a settler deliberately rammed him with a vehicle, followed by intimidation of medical staff treating him.
Israeli authorities also continued the practice of withholding the bodies of deceased Palestinian minors. At least 62 children’s bodies have been retained since 2016, with most still not returned to their families. International humanitarian law prohibits collective punishment and mandates dignified burial rights.
Gaza 2025: Mass Casualties and Family Annihilation
In Gaza, 2025 was defined by large scale destruction, family eradication, and catastrophic civilian harm.
DCIP released the documentary Through a Child’s Eyes, amplifying testimonies of children who survived military assaults. Survivors described losing parents to sniper fire, enduring days without food or water, and living among devastation before rescue.
Even children evacuated for medical treatment abroad faced long term trauma, severe injuries, and uncertain futures. Many require prosthetics, reconstructive surgery, or specialized psychological care unavailable due to ongoing siege conditions.
Thousands more remain undocumented beneath rubble, in displacement camps, or within detention systems.
Starvation as a Method of Warfare
One of the most alarming findings of the DCIP 2025 report concerns the use of starvation and siege tactics.
Food supplies, clean water, medical materials, electricity, and fuel were systematically restricted. Agricultural land, bakeries, water systems, and hospitals were damaged or destroyed.
In partnership with Physicians Against Genocide, DCIP published research detailing how prolonged deprivation resulted in widespread child malnutrition. Infants and newborns were particularly vulnerable.
Cases included:
• Infants dying from hypothermia after forced displacement into unheated tents.
• Babies unable to access adequate nutrition due to maternal malnutrition.
• A 17 year old detainee who died in prison showing severe muscle wasting, dehydration, untreated infections, and physical trauma.
These conditions reflect deliberate deprivation of life sustaining resources, which international law recognizes as prohibited collective punishment and potential war crimes.
Record Levels of Administrative Detention of Minors
In 2025, Israel expanded its use of administrative detention against Palestinian children. Administrative detention allows imprisonment without formal charges or trial, often based on secret evidence.
As of September 30, 2025:
• 350 Palestinian minors were held in Israeli prisons.
• 168 children, nearly 48 percent, were in administrative detention.
• This represents the highest number and proportion recorded since DCIP began monitoring in 2008.
Children as young as 14 were placed under renewable six month detention orders issued by military commanders and approved by military courts.
Israeli military courts do not meet international standards of judicial independence, as judges are active duty or reserve military officers.
Family visits remain suspended, legal access is restricted, and attorneys face barriers including canceled meetings and prolonged delays.
Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, minors have the right to prompt legal assistance and to challenge detention before an independent tribunal. These protections are routinely obstructed.
Systematic Torture and Ill Treatment
Throughout 2025, Palestinian children described widespread abuse during arrest, interrogation, and detention.
According to 325 sworn affidavits collected by DCIP:
• 74 percent reported physical violence during detention.
• 26 percent endured stress positions during interrogation.
• 58 percent were denied adequate food and water.
• 21 percent were placed in solitary confinement for two days or longer.
Solitary confinement conditions often involved small windowless cells, poor sanitation, constant artificial lighting or complete darkness, and extreme psychological distress.
In Gaza, detained minors reported electric shocks, beatings, forced stripping, and prolonged exposure to loud music and humiliation tactics in military detention facilities.
Such practices violate the Convention Against Torture and international human rights standards.
Enforced Disappearances of Children in Gaza
Enforced disappearance emerged as one of the most serious developments in 2025.
DCIP documented at least 30 cases of children aged 12 to 17 who went missing after encounters with Israeli forces. Families searched hospitals, morgues, and displacement centers without receiving information.
Only one minor was confirmed in Israeli custody through official lists. Families remain without clarity regarding the fate or whereabouts of their children.
Enforced disappearance constitutes a grave violation of international law and leaves families in prolonged psychological suffering.
A Crisis of Accountability
The DCIP 2025 report underscores that legal protections for children exist under international humanitarian and human rights law. However, enforcement mechanisms have failed to ensure accountability.
Advocacy efforts included parliamentary briefings, expert testimony, training sessions, and media engagement. Yet awareness alone has not produced sufficient political action.
Palestinian children continue to face violence, detention, displacement, and deprivation at alarming levels.
The Urgent Need for International Action
The situation described in the DCIP 2025 report calls for urgent international intervention grounded in legal accountability, child protection standards, and humanitarian law.
Children are entitled to safety, dignity, and a future free from violence. Sustainable protection requires not only documentation but enforcement of international obligations.
Without accountability, impunity persists. And without accountability, the cycle affecting Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank continues.
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