Israel-Hamas war: How many Palestinian children have lost their lives in Israeli attacks?

Hundreds of children have died as a result of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and the whole siege presents additional dangers concerning Palestinian children's right to food, education and utilities.

Residents of the Gaza Strip have been denied access to numerous necessities, including food and water, as a result of airstrikes by aeroplanes and Israel's recently imposed complete embargo on the territory.

Neighbourhoods in Gaza, notably al-Karama and Rimal, have been bombarded in retaliation for the Hamas attack on Israel, and the number of civilian fatalities, including hundreds of children, is rising.

Here is a look at how the war is affecting Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip:

How many Palestinian children have been killed and injured so far?

At least 950 Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Wednesday, including 260 children. 

According to the Palestinian Health Information Centre, 10% of the 3726 injured persons were children.

Palestinian human rights group Defence for Children International (DCI), which focuses on children's rights, claims that since 2005, six significant military offensives in Gaza have resulted in the deaths of at least 1,000 Palestinian children.

“We know from previous experience that children will be terrified,” said Jason Lee, Save the Children’s country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, in a statement on Saturday.

Children and the blockade

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared a total blockade of Gaza on Monday and used the term "beastly people" to support the action.

As a result, Gaza, which has been under a land, sea and air embargo since 2007 and whose borders are under Israeli control, has lost access to electricity, gas, food and water.

Israel has attacked Gaza five times since the embargo, causing the destruction of homes each time.

The blockade and restricted access to materials have made it difficult and time-consuming to rebuild the homes, forcing the residents to relocate.

Children's physical and mental health is impacted by these situations, which include a lack of access to clean water, resources for sanitisation, and protection from extreme weather.

Food insecurity will increase as a result of the whole blockade's lack of food supply. 

According to DCI, children in Gaza have in the past resorted to risky tactics of gathering money for food and going into areas where they could be assaulted by Israeli soldiers.

The absence of water and sanitary services in Gaza has previously led to children contracting illnesses like the flu and typhoid fever, said DCI.

Frequent electricity outages have made it worse for kids to be exposed to excessive heat and cold, they added.

Mental health

In Gaza, four out of every five children suffer from depression, grief, and dread, and more than half have suicidal thoughts, according to a 2022 report by Save the Children. 

Children in Gaza also suffer stress from witnessing other children's deaths.

Education disrupted

Since the start of the Israeli airstrikes, more than 73,000 Palestinians have fled their homes in search of safety in 64 UNRWA-run schools for Palestinian refugees.

Schools, however, are no longer secure places, as at least four of them in Gaza have been damaged by Israeli airstrikes, according to UNRWA.

On Tuesday, the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation’s Al Fakhoora school was destroyed amidst air strikes. The programme provided scholarships to Palestinian students in need. 

In a statement, EAA said that “collective punishment, reprisals, and attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are serious violations of international humanitarian law, and if deliberate they are war crimes.”

The continual worry of an Israeli invasion is also something Gazan students live with. In order to prepare teachers and children in schools close to the Gaza border for evacuation drills in the event of an attack, the Ministry of Education has developed training programmes.