The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has reported this Thursday that eight children have lost their lives in the Gaza Strip due to gunfire or attacks by the Israeli Army in just six days, thus raising the toll of Palestinian minors killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to 351 since October 2025, the date on which Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) agreed to a ceasefire.
Among the victims is "Mohamed, 14 years old, (who) was returning home from a learning center supported by UNICEF in Deir al-Balah when" he was hit by an Israeli drone last Saturday. "The next day, Misk, six years old, a first-grade student (...) was at home when, according to the information received, she died from gunfire in Al Maghazi," the agency stated in a statement.
UNICEF also cites the cases of Tamer, 12 years old, and Baraa, 14, both deceased, along with about twenty minors injured in less than a week in the Gaza Strip, a situation that, in the agency's view, reflects an "unacceptable level of violence against children."
The UN organization also emphasizes that children who manage to survive face enormous obstacles to their physical "and mental" recovery, due to the "devastation" suffered by the healthcare system in the Strip.
In this context, UNICEF mentions the case of Raghad, 16 years old, who remains "waiting, not knowing when" she will be able to undergo surgery or receive the necessary treatment to remove the bullet lodged between her spine and her lungs, after being shot in the back by Israeli forces. "She suffers constant pain and has difficulty breathing. Doctors say she needs surgery, but they cannot operate on her safely without the necessary equipment to obtain clear diagnostic images," the agency adds.
The organization regrets that the ceasefire, which has just completed a year since its implementation, "has failed" children, as it "does not protect" minors whose lives had already been "cut short" previously.
"Boys and girls must be protected wherever they are. At home, while playing, on their way to class or back home, anywhere. They have already suffered enough," UNICEF emphasizes.
For this reason, it urges the Israeli authorities to adopt "immediate and decisive measures" to safeguard the children of the Palestinian enclave, in compliance with their obligations under International Humanitarian Law, which implies, among other aspects, "respecting the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution in all attacks".