B’Tselem report exposes routine killings by “Israel” against Palestinian children

A new B’Tselem report examines the Israeli occupation’s killing of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, with special emphasis on 2025. The report provides a stark overview of the brute force Israel uses to maim and kill Palestine’s youth.

Titled — Unshielded Childhood: Palestinian children and teenagers killed by Israel in the West Bank — reveals the scale of the killings, and the circumstances in which children have been shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces (IOF). It also discusses the policies and practices enabling these violations to continue with total impunity.

“Israel” attacks all aspects of Palestinian life

Since the start of “Israel’s” genocide in Gaza, for want of revenge, the occupation has attacked all aspects of Palestinian existence in the territory. This includes the right to life.

Lethal violence carried out by the occupation’s military and settler militias has led to an unprecedented increase in the number of Palestinians killed by the occupation. This includes children. Between 7 October 2023 and 7 June 2026, the IOF killed 1,086 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Almost one in every four, or 235, of those killed was a Palestinian child. But, since October 2023, no charges have been filed in any of these cases.

The report also documents how the violence extends beyond the moment children are shot. In nearly a quarter of the cases involving children killed in 2025, the IOF deliberately delayed or prevented critically wounded children from receiving life-saving medical treatment.

These findings expose a consistent pattern. Palestinian children are killed by “Israel”, intentionally denied urgent medical care. They are also denied dignity even after death, with 18 of the 54 bodies still being withheld by the occupation, as of 6 June 2026.

54 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank killed in 2025

120 Palestinian children were killed by “Israel” in 2023. 80 of them in under three months after 7 October, 2023. In 2024, 89 children were killed. These two years saw a record number of Palestinian children killed.

54 children, who were 17 years old and younger, were killed by the Israeli occupation in 2025. Five of these were between the ages of just two and 10 years old. This figure is lower than 2023 and 2024. But it is still four times the number of children killed by the occupation between 2005 and 2021. During this time, an average of 19 Palestinians were killed by the IOF and illegal colonial settlers each year. Israeli occupation authorities are withholding the bodies of 18 of these 54 children. So they deny their families the opportunity to bury them, and prolong their suffering.

Of these 54 children killed by “Israel” in 2025, thirteen were shot while throwing stones at roads or armoured tanks. Even though no injuries were reported from the stone-throwing. And at least 21 were not involved in any clashes, even when they were taking place nearby.

“The widespread, unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of a broader Israeli policy. The policy enables the killing of Palestinians with virtually no accountability. 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.”

Shoot-to-kill directives

Novak is referring to major general Avi Bluth, head of the army’s central command in the West Bank, who also claimed 96 percent of those killed were involved in “terrorism”. This allegation has been proven to be a “blatant lie” by B’Tselem documentation.

The report explains that the increase in child fatalities started in 2022. New regulations brought in during that year, allow occupation soldiers to use lethal fire against any Palestinian throwing stones. This also applies to those who supposedly throw stones, but who flee the scene, and so pose no danger.

47 of the 54 children were killed by the Israeli occupation gunfire, in a range of military operations and confrontations, although B’Tselem says it was unable to verify many of these claims.  The other seven were killed by Israeli occupation airstrikes.

B’Tselem’s report details each of the 54 children killed by “Israel” in 2025. In most of these cases, testimonies are also given by eyewitnesses and family members.

Nidal Shaghnubi, 16, was killed on 17 May 2025, in Burqah, Nablus district.

Along with two other teens, Shaghnubi was throwing stones at Route 60. This is the main road running North to South of the occupied West Bank, and is used by both settlers and Palestinians. Israeli occupation soldiers opened fire at them. Shaghnubi was critically wounded, but his two friends, who were also injured, managed to flee and were taken to hospital in an ambulance. No residents or ambulance was able to reach Shaghnubi, as the soldiers continued firing into the air. He died as a result of his wounds and “Israel” is still withholding his body.

“We weren’t given the chance to say goodbye, or bury him.”

According to B’Tselem, in cases where the IOF have removed the wounded from the scene themselves, it is often unknown whether they made any attempt to save the victim’s life before they died.

As part of a testimony he gave to B’Tselem on 28 March 2026, Nidal’s father Wael Shaghnubi, 54, says:

“I still haven’t seen my son. They wouldn’t let me see him after he was wounded, or after he died. When he was lying there in the grove, they didn’t let me go near him or look at him. And I don’t know where on his body he was wounded. His body hasn’t been returned to us, and we weren’t given the chance to say goodbye to him, or bury him.”

Amru Ali Ahmad Qabha, 13, was shot and killed on 18 July, 2025, in Ya’bad, Jenin district.

The IOF were raiding the town of Ya’bad, and Qabha happened to pass by the soldiers. At the same time they ordered him to stop, they also fired at him. The ambulance was only allowed to enter once Qabha had died of his wounds. In a press report, the occupation claimed he had thrown an IED at the military and another one had been found at the scene.

As part of a testimony she gave to B’Tselem on 28 March 2026, Amru’s mother Ayidah Qabha, 42 says of her only son:

“I can’t forget the moment I saw my son’s body, with deep wounds in his neck and legs, and nine bullets that pierced his body.”

Muhammad Bahajat al-Halaq, 9, was killed on 16 October 2025, in a- Rihiya village, South of Hebron.

Two military jeeps stopped next to the school in the centre of the village, so the children ran away and hid. Some threw stones at the armoured jeeps as they passed. An occupation soldier fired live bullets, and one hit al-Halaq in the pelvis. He collapsed, bleeding. Then the soldiers fired tear gas at him, and fired live bullets at a young man who tried to reach him. He was pronounced dead at 6pm that evening.

“Israel” prevents medical personnel reaching critically injured

According to the report, at least nine out of the 54 cases of children killed by “Israel” in 2025, involved soldiers firing live shots in the air or at residents and medical personnel to keep them away from the wounded persons.

As part of a testimony she gave to B’Tselem on 27 October 2025, Muhammad’s mother Aliyah al-Halaq, 32, says:

On 22 October, some military vehicles arrived at the place where Muhammad was shot, accompanied by some Israeli journalists. At first I thought they were going to conduct a real investigation into the incident. But I lost hope when I heard the soldiers threatening the residents over loudspeakers, saying Muhammad’s name and that they had no regrets over his death, and would not hesitate to shoot anyone who threw stones, even such a young child. They threatened to do to us what they did in Gaza, and to destroy our village’s streets, like they did in Jenin and Tulkarm.

The occupation’s killing of Palestinian children has become “routine.” Even the killing of 21,000 children during the occupation’s genocide in Gaza has failed to lead to demands for change. This shows, according to the report, the “Israeli” public’s indifference to, and dehumanisation of, Palestinians.

The sharp rise in the killing of children in the occupied West Bank cannot be viewed in isolation from Israel’s genocide in Gaza. More than 21,000 Palestinian children have been killed here since October 2023. But such an unprecedented death toll has not brought about widespread public demands for a change in policy. B’Tselem argues this is because Palestinians have been dehumanised to such an extent in “Israeli” society.

This climate of impunity and indifference, it says, has helped normalise the “routine” killing of Palestinian children.

Featured image via B’Tselem / the Canary