A recent report by The Guardian revealed the alarming rise in the killing of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, shedding light on the devastating consequences of ongoing Israeli aggression.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli troops and settlers have killed 171 Palestinian children in the West Bank, with one death occurring nearly every other day, according to UN data. Over 1,000 others have been injured. The youngest victim was a four-year-old girl shot while sitting with her mother in a taxi near a checkpoint in January.

Despite the absence of an "official war" in the West Bank and the overshadowing crisis in Gaza, child deaths in the region are occurring at the highest rates since 1967, as per the report.

In one incident, 12-year-old Mohammad was shot on the afternoon of 14 June, about 50 meters from his home on the edge of a refugee camp in south-eastern Ramallah.

Mohammad was shot as he was trying to head home as told by his mother to do upon seeing troops on the streets.

Video capturing moments before and after the fatal attack shows him racing down an empty street, with soldiers stationed at one end. The camera pans away before he’s hit, then swings back to show lying him on the sidewalk, struggling briefly to stand, then collapsing, The Guardian reported,

A later clip shows the 12-year-old lying bleeding in the middle of the still-empty street. Witnesses said Israeli troops barred medics from approaching for 20 minutes, a common practice by the occupation forces to ensure maximum damage is inflicted.

Eight days later, Mohammad succumbed to the injuries he sustained from the gunshot wound to his abdomen.

Mohammad’s father, Murad Hoshiyeh, wants the soldier who shot his son put on trial, but he cannot even travel through checkpoints into Israel to file a case.

“My son was innocent,” he said. “This is total oppression. Imagine if it was the other way around. If they just heard that someone wanted to hurt one of their children, what would they do?”

'Children are being killed on a regular basis'

Jonathan Crickx, a UNICEF spokesperson for Palestine, expressed deep concern, stating, “Unicef wants to ring the alarm bell, that children are being killed and seriously injured on a regular basis, mostly by live ammunition.”

The UN only counted child victims whose killings have been verified with names, ages, and causes of death. The Israeli military has not charged any soldiers over these killings, and it did not comment directly on the rising child casualty figures. 

The rate of child killings in the West Bank has now surpassed levels seen during the Second Intifada in 2002, when 85 children were killed, according to Israeli rights group B’tselem. 

The majority of the recent child victims were killed by live ammunition, with many struck in the head or torso, while others were killed by drones or airstrikes.

The difficulty of obtaining justice for Palestinian children killed by Israelis is so severe that the Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) has shifted its focus to documenting these child victims rather than pursuing legal action.

Read more: IOF kill a Palestinian child every two days in West Bank: UN