Killing of Palestinian children, teens by Israel surges in West Bank

RAMALLAH, Aug 30: An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians, including a three-year-old child, in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, health officials said.

Gaza medics said the Israeli airstrike near a bakery in Deir Al-Balah killed one man, HussamNusair, a three-year-old boy, Tayyem Hamdan, and wounded several others.

The Israeli military said it attacked and killed a Hamas militant. It said that Nusair advanced attacks against Israeli forces and civilians.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the military's allegation.

Alia al-Hallaq's son Mohammed was nine when he was killed by an Israeli army bullet last October, but the Palestinian homemaker still speaks of herself as a mother of five, not four.

"I still haven't accepted the idea of the loss. I often sit in the courtyard of the house and look at Mohammed's grave below, and I cry while making sure that my children don't see me," she told AFP.

She said Mohammed was killed after running away from soldiers patrolling their village of Al-Rihiya, in the south of the occupied West Bank.

Hallaq's uncle, also named Mohammed Hallaq, told AFP that his nephew was killed by a stray bullet during a confrontation between the army patrol and a group of older youths.

The bullet travelled through Mohammed's abdomen, according to emergency services.

"Mohammed's killing was the end," his mother said.

The Israeli military, contacted by AFP for comment on Mohammed's death, said at the time that soldiers opened fire during an altercation while deployed in Al-Rihaya.

"Soldiers responded with fire toward the suspects in the rock-hurling. Hits were identified," it said, using language it generally employs to say troops shot and hit someone.

The killing of Palestinian children and teenagers by Israel has become increasingly common since the start of the war in Gaza.

B'Tselem, an Israeli rights group, reported 235 children and teenagers killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 7, 2023 -- when Hamas launched a massive attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip -- through June 2026, including five killed by Israeli settlers.

The Palestinian Authority's Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, a Palestinian government institution, reported 250 such deaths over the same time period.

In the 17 years between 2005 and 2021, an average of roughly one Palestinian child or teenager was killed by Israeli forces every month, according to B'Tselem, a frequent but much lower rate.

For the period since the October 7 attack, the average using B'Tselem figures is around seven killed per month.

AFP spoke to 12 women who lost children since October 7, 2023.

Although the details of each case differ, all spoke of family life stopped in its tracks and a lack of accountability.

Last year, of the 54 Palestinian children or teenagers killed according to B'Tselem, the youngest was just two years old, while the majority were aged between 14 and 17.�"AFP, REUTERS