Children account for nearly a quarter of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023, the highest death rate of minors since Israel’s occupation of the territory in 1967, Israeli rights group B’Tselem said on Monday.
“The widespread, unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of a broader Israeli policy that enables the killing of Palestinians with virtually no accountability,” B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak said in a report.
“When the military commander of the area boasts that Israel is killing Palestinians ‘like we haven’t killed since 1967,’ he is confirming exactly that: the system does not merely back those who pull the trigger — it effectively grants them a license to kill,” he added.
The group said that 241 children and teenagers were among 1,086 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023.
According to the rights group, 54 Palestinian children were killed in the West Bank last year, and in nearly one-quarter of these cases, Israeli forces delayed or prevented medical teams or local residents from reaching wounded children and teenagers to provide life-saving assistance.
