04/06/2026
At least 21,289 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, in what the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, leading genocide scholars and international legal experts have concluded meets the legal definition of genocide under the Genocide Convention. It is one of the deadliest recorded destructions of a child population in modern history. A further 44,500 children have been injured, according to UNICEF figures covering the period up to February 2026. Among the dead are at least 1,009 infants under one year old — nearly half of whom were born and killed during the genocide itself. At least 21,000 children have been left permanently disabled. Thousands more remain missing, presumed buried beneath rubble that has yet to be excavated. The confirmed figure of 21,000 is a floor, not a ceiling. A Max Planck Institute demographic study estimated the true death toll — including deaths from disease, starvation and the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s medical infrastructure — could reach between 100,000 and 126,000, with children under 15 accounting for 27 percent, suggesting a real child death toll potentially exceeding 34,000. At its peak, Israel was killing more than one Palestinian child every single hour. A ceasefire has been nominally in force since October 10, 2025. UNICEF confirmed that over 100 children were killed in the first three months of the truce alone — roughly one child per day — saying: “A ceasefire that still kills children is not enough.”
