ICSPR on the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression: Gaza’s and Palestine’s Children Are Paying the Heaviest Price for the Ongoing Israeli Machine of Genocide and Aggression

Date: 3 June 2025

Press Release

ICSPR on the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression: Gaza’s and Palestine’s Children Are Paying the Heaviest Price for the Ongoing Israeli Machine of Genocide and Aggression

On 4 June of every year, the world marks the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, a day established by the United Nations to recall the suffering of children who are victims of armed conflict. This year, the day comes amid one of the bloodiest and most painful humanitarian tragedies of the modern era, as Palestinian children, particularly in the Gaza Strip, face a genocidal war, occupation, and a suffocating and ongoing blockade, in flagrant violation of the rules of international humanitarian law and international conventions, foremost among them the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The children of Gaza and Palestine are no longer merely “collateral victims” of military operations, but have become a direct target of the Israeli war machine that seeks to destroy the future of an entire generation. The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR) has documented the following catastrophic data:

• At least 21,289 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip, representing around 30 percent of the total victims of the aggression, while the number of children killed and injured together has exceeded 50,000 according to UNICEF reports, and more than 44,500 children have been injured.

• More than 10,000 children suffer from severe injuries that have permanently changed their lives and caused deep physical and psychological trauma, including more than 1,000 children who have undergone limb amputations, making Gaza home to the highest proportion of child amputees compared with any contemporary conflict in the world.

• More than 21,000 children are missing, either under the rubble of destroyed homes or as a result of losing contact with their families and being separated during forced displacement.

• More than 58,000 children have lost at least one parent, while 2,596 children have lost both parents, leaving them to face an uncertain future without support.

• 157 children have died because of famine and acute malnutrition, and 25 children have died بسبب cold conditions in displacement tents.

• Nearly one million children are suffering from infectious diseases and malnutrition, while hundreds of thousands have been deprived of their basic rights to education, healthcare, and psychological support.

ICSPR affirms that what Palestinian children are being subjected to constitutes a grave violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their additional protocols, and clearly rises to the level of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. ICSPR also reiterates that protecting children is not a political or negotiable option, but rather a strict legal, moral, and humanitarian obligation. The silence and helplessness of the international community in the face of the bloodshed of Gaza’s children represent a historic failure and a grave collapse of the international justice and human rights system.

Accordingly, ICSPR calls for urgent action on the following:

1. Oblige the occupying power to consolidate the ceasefire and immediately halt all violations and attacks targeting Palestinian children, and hold it accountable for its blatant breaches of international conventions.

2. Ensure international legal accountability for occupation leaders and prosecute them before the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice for crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing against children.

3. Provide urgent international protection for the children of Gaza and Palestine, and create a safe environment that supports their psychological and physical recovery from the trauma and suffering they have endured.

4. Facilitate the unrestricted flow of humanitarian, medical, and food aid, secure child-specific needs, and ensure their fair distribution through human rights and humanitarian institutions inside the Gaza Strip.

5. Launch broad international and regional programs for the psychological and physical rehabilitation of injured children, children with disabilities, and orphans in all areas of displacement and refuge.

6. Guarantee the restoration of Palestinian children’s rights to education, health, and a dignified life by increasing alternative educational spaces and supporting voluntary initiatives aimed at creating a protective environment for them.

Ended

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR)