In the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers are killing and attacking Palestinian children, who live under imminent threat of death and with no prospects for the future. This is according to a report by the Israeli NGO B'Tselem, which denounces the genocide in Gaza. The document, titled "Our Genocide," released this past Monday, July 28, highlights the severe consequences of the conflict on the physical and psychological health of children and their mothers, who are unable to breastfeed due to trauma.
The NGO's report is based on data from organizations, news reports, and anecdotes. Since the war began in October 2023, more than 55,000 people have died in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the local Ministry of Health. The deaths occurred in bombings or shootings by the Israeli military, ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faced international criticism and was sentenced to prison for "war crimes" by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Why does this matter?
The report by the human rights group B'Tselem is one of the first initiatives by Israeli NGOs to denounce the genocide in Gaza;
The data and testimonies in the publication reveal a devastating picture of war deaths, more than half of which are children.
According to the B'Tselem report, Israeli attacks do not occur solely through aerial or bomb attacks. There are places known as "killing zones," where Israeli army soldiers deliberately open fire on Palestinian citizens, including children. "These practices were reinforced by statements from commanders about indiscriminate killings and by testimonies from volunteer medics in Gaza, including visual evidence of deliberate sniper killings of children," the report describes.
The "kill zones" were described by Israeli soldiers as places where "permission was given to shoot anyone seen within them," and the boundaries of these areas were not entirely clear, even to the military.
One of the accounts presented in the document is that of Raja al-Harbiti, 35. She, her husband, and their three children were run over by an Israeli tank, even while holding white flags calling for peace. The father of the family and one of the children were torn apart by the armored vehicle, leaving only the mother and two children, who were seriously injured, to survive.
"Ibrahim [one of the surviving children] keeps reliving the moment the tank hit his father and brothers. He keeps describing how Muhammad's [his deceased brother] head was severed, and how Ahmad [his father] bled profusely. He became aggressive and hits the other children around him. He screams a lot, has nightmares at night, and wets the bed," said the surviving mother.
"Every time Sanaa [the second surviving daughter] hears a loud noise, she gets very scared, puts her hands over her ears, and says, 'Tank.' She also suffers from urinary incontinence. I feel like we're living in a horror movie," said al-Harbiti.
Children live with the fear of death
According to the report, 96% of children in Gaza believe they will die soon, and another 50% wish for death due to the trauma caused by the conflict. The data comes from the NGO Save the Children, a UN-affiliated organization. Another study cited was released by Doctors Without Borders in December 2024, and indicates that Palestinian children presented "suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, and a need for psychosocial support."
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According to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health, released to Doctors for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI), approximately 4,700 people had limbs amputated, including nearly 1,000 children. Due to painkiller shortages, some of the procedures were performed without anesthesia, including on children.
Hala Rajabi, 50, told B'Tselem that Israeli soldiers deliberately broke into her home in July 2024 and assaulted her and her children, including the children.
"Muhammad [one of the sons] still suffers from testicular pain and anxiety. He's had trouble sleeping since the attack. He says he has nightmares about soldiers chasing him and beating him. [...] I haven't really recovered since. It's very difficult to stand there, helpless, and listen to soldiers beating your children in your own home," said the matriarch.
As a result of the conflict, the Palestinian population lost 30 years of life expectancy at birth, the report states. Men previously lived, on average, to 75 years, but now they don't live past 40. For women, the decrease has gone from 77 to 47 years.
Hunger and Malnutrition
The lack of adequate food and access to clean water also causes children to be born with low birth weight and mothers to be unable to produce milk to feed their newborns, resulting in infant deaths, according to the document.
The report describes hunger as also a form of death caused by Israeli attacks. "All are a direct result of the destruction of living conditions in the Gaza Strip, the restrictions imposed by Israel on the entry of humanitarian aid, and the Israeli attack on the health system, which has become unable to cope with the continuous flow of victims," the document noted.
"My youngest son, 'Az a-Din, cried a lot and kept saying, 'I'm hungry.' It broke my heart to hear that, and I cried because of his situation, but it was everyone's situation. I explained to him that everyone was hungry and that there was nothing I could do," said the matriarch of five children, Hala Sha'sha'ah, 40, when interviewed by the NGO.
Sha'sha'ah lives in Gaza City, the largest city in the Palestinian territory. She told B'Tselem that it's difficult to find meat, vegetables, and even flour. "We've reached a point where people are eating any kind of meat they can find, no matter where it comes from," she said.
On Sunday, July 27, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "there is no hunger in Gaza" and that Israel had allowed humanitarian aid to enter during the war, in a speech at a Christian event in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) released a study last Monday, July 28, classifying the Gaza Strip as the "worst famine scenario right now" worldwide.
Report: https://www.phr.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Genocide-in-Gaza-PHRI-English.pdf
https://www.hhrjournal.org/2025/07/29/a-destruction-of-the-conditions-for-life-report-on-genocide-in-gaza/
Video: Two Israeli rights groups accuse Israel of genocide: https://ok.ru/video/9839695563308