Above photo: Palestinian children read the Holy Quran on the rubble of Al-Kanz Mosque after it was destroyed during an Israeli air strike on Gaza City, on April 23, 2024. Khaled Daoud/APA Images.
International campaign launched to protect the children of Lebanon and Palestine.
The Palestine-Global Mental Health Network is now launching an international campaign to demand world governments hold Israel accountable for its war crimes against Palestinian and Lebanese children.
The Palestine-Global Mental Health Network, along with its international counterparts, is now launching an international campaign to demand that world governments hold Israel accountable to the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child—principles which prioritize the inherent right to life and uphold the best interests of all children.
The genocidal intentions of the Zionist settler-colonial state, recognized by many as Israel, (hereinafter referred to as Israel), are made clear in various documented statements by its officials. The former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has derogatorily referred to Palestinians as “human animals”, while Israeli President Isaac Herzog has stated, “there are no innocent civilians in Gaza”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has further inflamed this narrative by comparing Palestinians to Amalekites and describing the situation in Gaza as a struggle between the “children of light and children of darkness”. In 2015, a Facebook post by Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s described Palestinian children as “little snakes” to justify their collective punishment.
Evidence from Lebanon
UNICEF reports that the war on Lebanon continues to wreak havoc on the lives of children, causing serious physical injuries and lasting psychological trauma. According to data from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, 166 children have lost their lives and at least 1,168 have suffered injuries since October, 2023. The numbers of those affected increase daily.
Since the 4th of October this year, Israeli violence has claimed the life of at least one child and caused injuries to ten more children every day. Although many children have physically survived the prolonged bombings, they experience severe psychological suffering due to the surrounding turmoil. Numerous children in Lebanon are showing concerning symptoms of emotional, behavioral, and physical distress. UNICEF workers report encountering children overwhelmed by fear and suffering from increased anxiety of separation and loss, as well as withdrawal, aggression, and difficulties in concentration. Many are experiencing disrupted sleep, nightmares, headaches, and decreased appetite. Without the protective and stable environment of schools, these children lack the necessary spaces to play, learn, and begin healing.
The war on Lebanon is destroying the protective environment crucial for children and exposing them to extended traumatic stress; this creates serious health and psychological risks, potentially affecting them for the rest of their lives (UNICEF, October 2024).
Evidence from Gaza
In Gaza, the situation is particularly dire, with clear evidence that children are deliberately targeted. A poignant letter to President Biden from 45 doctors who volunteered in Gaza described treating children with injuries that appeared to be deliberately inflicted. They unanimously reported, “Specifically, every one of us on a daily basis treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head and chest.”
Human Rights Watch and Save the Children have documented systematic violations affecting children, including the demolition of educational facilities, targeting of residential areas, and restrictions on medical care and humanitarian aid. A recent Human Rights Watch report highlighted the plight of children with disabilities in Gaza, underscoring how military strikes and blockades have left these vulnerable children isolated without necessary medical treatment during and after attacks (Human Rights Watch, September 2024).
Save the Children International, in an October 2024 report, stated, “[o]ne year of Israeli bombardment has shattered childhoods in Gaza. The occupied Palestinian territory, specifically Gaza, is the deadliest place on earth to be a child.” Every day, children face violence, fear, loss, displacement, hunger, and devastation. They are being killed at an unprecedented rate. They are dying because of forced starvation and disease. They have lost homes, loved ones, and the safety to which they have a right. Those who survive are being stripped of their childhood. The longer this continues, the harder it will be for children even to begin to recover from the trauma inflicted on them (Save the Children International, October 2024).
Save the Children reported that over 26,000 children were killed or injured in a mere six-month period, reflecting a shocking scale of violence directly impacting children (Save the Children International SCI). In Gaza, more than ten children a day lose a limb ( SCI report); the parents of at least 17000 children have been either killed or separated from their children ( UNICEF report); newborn babies are simply dying from starvation (UN News); every newborn in Gaza is underweight.
Evidence from the West Bank
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian children face escalating violence and displacement due to Israeli military actions and systematic settler violence (Human Rights Watch, April 2024). This situation has seen increasing levels of child casualties, with a threefold spike in the killing of children since October 2023—since then, a child has been killed every two days (UNICEF, 2024). These conditions, alongside home demolitions and property destruction, displace thousands yearly, creating a coercive environment that forcibly displaces families and impacts children’s well-being. Human rights organizations report that settler violence, often supported or tolerated by the Israeli military, contributes significantly to this displacement, particularly as settlers seize Palestinian land and resources. Displacement and intimidation align with conditions constituting ethnic cleansing under international law, raising urgent concerns about the safety of children and the violation of international humanitarian rights (UNICEF, 2023).
What’s more, Israel remains the only country that systematically prosecutes children in military courts, a clear violation of international law. These courts systematically deny children the fundamental right to protection and a fair trial. Hundreds of Palestinian children are prosecuted each year in what amounts to institutionalized abuse of minors (Defense for Children International, ND).
These documented war crimes and crimes against humanity, which result in severe collective trauma, are enabled and funded by those world governments which continue to supply Israel with weapons, bombs, and bullets.
The ongoing genocide has destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children. It continues to erase the land and history of Palestine and its inhabitants forever.
As a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the occupying power in the Palestinian territories, Israel has a legal obligation to prioritize the well-being of all children under its jurisdiction. However, Palestinian children continue to endure severe physical and psychological harm, with their rights to safety, dignity, and a normal childhood consistently violated. These actions, including land confiscation, resource expropriation, and confinement, severely hinder Palestinian development, reinforcing a reality of “unchilding”—the systematic stripping of childhood’s innocence and security. Every year, Israeli forces kill, injure, orphan, and detain Palestinian children, often leaving trauma unaddressed. This environment demands urgent investigation, protective interventions, a lasting political resolution that ensures Palestinian self-determination, and security for all in the region (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, 2023).
Call to Action
We urge all individuals and organizations standing in solidarity with Lebanon and Palestine, working to uphold human rights and international humanitarian law, and fighting for collective liberation, to join us in this crucial campaign:
NO CHILD A TARGET: PROTECT THE CHILDREN OF LEBANON AND PALESTINE
Join us in demanding that all governments insist that
Israel complies with the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, particularly Articles 3, 5, and 6, which emphasize the best interests of the child, parental responsibilities, and the right to life.
We urge all who believe in human dignity, safety, and the future of Lebanese and Palestinian children to sign our International Petition and to act now—because all children deserve a future. The lives of children of Palestine and Lebanon hang in the balance, and we must not continue to be complicit in these war crimes.
Sign our urgent International Petition and please circulate it widely.
Endorsing Individuals
- Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei MD
- Dr. Omar Abdel Mannan MD
- Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah MD
- Dr. Samah Jabr, MD
- Professor Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, PhD
Endorsing Organizations
- Defense of Children International-Palestine
- Doctors Against Genocide
- Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council
- The International Palestine-Mental Health Networks
(Australia, Canada, Belgium, Brazil, Egypt, France, Iraq, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Ireland, South Africa, Sweden, The Netherlands, Turkiye, United Kingdom and the United States) - Visualizing Palestine