Rights group documents mass suffering of Palestinian children under 'Israeli' actions

• Rights group says two thousand twenty-five was a devastating year for Palestinian children marked by genocide, starvation, torture, and forced disappearance.
• Organization accuses world leaders of shielding ‘Israel’ from accountability despite extensive documentation of abuses.

Palestinian children endured another catastrophic year of genocide, starvation, torture, mass displacement, and enforced disappearance at the hands of ‘Israeli’ forces and settlers in 2025, according to a new report by Defense for Children International Palestine.

The organization said documentation it collected throughout the year shows that ‘Israel’s’ ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, combined with escalating repression in the occupied West Bank, has systematically stripped Palestinian children of their rights to life, safety, health, and childhood.

Read more: 'Israeli' forces arrest two Palestinians, assault others during West Bank raids

“Despite overwhelming evidence of mass atrocity crimes, world leaders continued to shield ‘Israel’ from accountability”, the report said, leaving Palestinian children without protection.

Starvation used as a weapon

The report states that ‘Israel’s’ use of starvation as a method of warfare reached unprecedented levels in two thousand twenty-five. Authorities maintained a comprehensive siege on the Gaza Strip, while food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity were deliberately blocked.

‘Israeli’ forces also intentionally destroyed farmland, bakeries, mills, water networks, and hospitals, deepening malnutrition, particularly among infants and newborns, according to the organization.

Defense for Children International Palestine, together with Doctors Against Genocide, published a separate report titled “Starving a Generation”, detailing how ‘Israel’s’ policies caused chronic and systematic malnutrition among Palestinian children and newborns in Gaza.

Read more: 16 deaths in Gaza including three children due to cold, collapsed buildings: UNRWA report

The group concluded that these practices amount to torture under international law and form part of a broader strategy of genocidal crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. This legal analysis was later published in the Torture Journal, which focuses on rehabilitation of torture victims and prevention.

Children killed, maimed, and orphaned

In Gaza, the scale of killing and maiming of children and the annihilation of entire families remained catastrophic throughout the year.

In February, the organization screened a documentary titled “Through a Child’s Eyes”, featuring testimonies from children who survived life under relentless bombardment in Gaza.

One such case highlighted in the report is that of the four children of the Hassouna family. ‘Israeli’ snipers killed their parents, forcing the children to survive for two days beside their parents’ bodies without food or water, while stray dogs circled them, until relatives managed to reach them.

During the rescue, 14-year-old Lina Hassouna was shot in the chest and survived multiple surgeries. She and her siblings continue to suffer severe psychological trauma. Their guardian, according to the report, is already responsible for caring for 23 other children.

The organization stressed that these stories represent only a fraction of the children it documented, while thousands more remain unaccounted for under rubble, in tents, in prisons, or scattered across displacement areas throughout Gaza.

Bodies withheld as collective punishment

The Defense for Children International Palestine said ‘Israeli’ authorities continue to withhold the bodies of Palestinian children, describing the practice as collective punishment and a violation of international humanitarian law.

Since June 2016, ‘Israeli’ forces have withheld the remains of at least 62 Palestinian children. Only six bodies have been returned to their families, while the remains of 56 children are still held by ‘Israel’, denying families the right to bury their children with dignity.

In September 2019, ‘Israel’s’ Supreme Court upheld the practice after multiple legal challenges. Two months later, then 'Israeli' Defense Minister Naftali Bennett ordered the indefinite withholding of all bodies of Palestinians accused of attacking ‘Israelis’.

Death, torture inside prisons

Inside ‘Israeli’ prisons, Palestinian children faced escalating abuse in 2025, including severe food and water deprivation.

The year marked the first recorded death of a Palestinian child in ‘Israeli’ custody. 17-year-old Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmed died in Megiddo Prison. An autopsy revealed extreme muscle and fat wasting, untreated infections, dehydration, scabies, and injuries caused by blunt force trauma.

The findings, the organization said, clearly indicate that Walid was starved and systematically abused for months before he collapsed and died.

Record use of administrative detention

The report documented a dangerous escalation in ‘Israel’s’ use of administrative detention against Palestinian children, a practice that allows imprisonment for extended periods without charge or trial based on secret evidence.

Month after month this year, the number and proportion of Palestinian children held in administrative detention reached unprecedented levels.

In February, ‘Israeli’ forces arrested 14-year-old Muin Ghassan Fahd Salahat from his home in Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, during a pre-dawn raid. On March 2, 'Israeli' authorities issued a 4 month administrative detention order against him.

Muin is the youngest Palestinian child placed under administrative detention since it began monitoring the practice in 2008, according to the organization.

Widespread torture documented

Defense for Children International Palestine reported a sharp increase in torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children at every stage of arrest, interrogation, and detention.

In a submission to the 83 session of the Committee Against Torture in October, the organization presented 325 sworn affidavits from Palestinian children detained in West Bank, including Jerusalem, between January 2021 and August 2025.

The report found that 74 percent of children experienced physical violence by ‘Israeli’ prison officers, 26 percent were subjected to torture during interrogation, and 58 percent were denied adequate food and water.

At least 21 percent were held in solitary confinement for interrogation purposes for two days or longer. Children described windowless cells with rough gray walls, filthy conditions, foul-smelling toilets, and constant darkness or harsh lighting that caused severe psychological distress.

‘Israeli’ authorities interrogated 94 percent of detained children without a family member present, and 89 percent were not informed of the reason for their arrest. Coercive methods, including the use of informants, were routinely employed to extract confessions.

Enforced disappearances surge

The report also warned of a sharp rise in enforced disappearances in 2025. In Gaza, ‘Israeli’ forces abducted children while they were searching for food or humanitarian aid, then transferred them to Sde Teiman, an ‘Israeli’ military detention camp.

Children reported being stripped, starved, beaten, held in cages, electrocuted, and abused in what detainees described as the “disco room”, where loud music was played for hours while soldiers assaulted prisoners at random.

Families, the report said, were often left without information or any means to locate their children.

“This year has shown with painful clarity that Palestinian children face not a lack of law, but a lack of enforcement”, the report concluded. “International protections exist, yet the world continues to shield ‘Israel’ while its forces starve, torture, disappear, and kill Palestinian children with impunity”.