The Israeli human rights organization B’tselem released a new study, entitled “Unshielded Children” today, documenting the systematic killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank. Over the course of two years and eight months, from 7 October 2023 to 7 June 2026, Israeli forces killed 235 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank, with five more killed by settlers. The rate amounts to 7.5 per month. The study focused upon the 54 killed in 2025, with the story and documentation of each one placed on a map with links.
The report stated: “The unprecedented scale of killing of Palestinian children and teenagers by Israeli forces is the result of a reckless open-fire policy, expanded to be even more permissive than in the past, that is currently being implemented in the West Bank. Central Command Chief Avi Bluth publicly boasted that ‘we are killing like we haven’t killed since 1967.’ Bluth’s claim that '96% of those killed were involved in terrorism'—an allegation exposed as a brazen lie by documentation of the circumstances of death in B’Tselem’s list of Palestinian fatalities—also reflects the Israeli system’s routine identification of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces as ‘terrorists’ or ‘terror operatives,’ including civilians who were not members of an armed organization and posed no danger at the time they were killed. This identification creates, de facto, systemic impunity for killing.”
Prior to 2022, the rate of killing of such children and teenagers was one per month for the previous 17 years. Then the IDF changed their rules to permit “soldiers to use lethal fire against stone throwers [in IDF-speak, “launchers” of “projectiles” -ed.] in a departure from previous rules. The new regulations permitted use of lethal fire even at individuals fleeing after suspectedly throwing stones, who no longer posed a danger—in violation of international law.” During the next 21 months—that is, prior to Oct 7, 2023—the rate of killing more than tripled. This rise complemented an escalation in provocations against the al-Aqsa Mosque, in attacks on Palestinians in general, and in Netanyahu bringing the settlers’ leaders—Itamar ben-Gvir and Bezalal Smotrich—into his government alliance.
