Ramallah, October 30, 2023—More than 40 percent of the Palestinians killed in Gaza are children as the child death toll climbs to 3,457, according to the Ministry of Health.

Israeli forces have killed 3,457 Palestinian children in Gaza, representing more than 40 percent of the total death toll, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, in three weeks since the Israeli military unleashed a massive military offensive on the Gaza Strip on October 7.

The fatality and injury numbers provided by the Ministry of Health in Gaza only account for people admitted to hospitals, and an estimated 1,050 Palestinian children are reported missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, indicating the actual death toll is much higher.

The number of Palestinian children killed in Gaza in the last three weeks has exceeded the annual number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones since 2019, according to Save the Children.

At least 8,306 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military bombardment began on October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The total death toll in Gaza is surpassing that of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995, when the Bosnian Serb military killed around 8,000 Muslim men and teenagers.

While some connectivity has been restored in southern Gaza, many Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing a total blackout of internet and telecommunications since Israeli forces intensified airstrikes and began a ground invasion of northern Gaza on October 27.

Children are at heightened risk of loss of life, physical harm, severe emotional distress, and protracted displacement following the announced “expanded ground operations” by Israeli forces in Gaza, said Save the Children in a statement. Children will bear the brunt of the “intensification of attacks” in Gaza, with more deaths, injuries, and distress likely, said the aid agency, calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The United Nations General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution on October 27 calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities, the first United Nations response to the active hostilities.

36 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, according to documentation collected by DCIP, when the Israeli military began a full-scale bombardment on the Gaza Strip dubbed Operation Iron Swords.

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