DaysofPal- The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has released devastating new figures detailing the toll of Israel’s ongoing military campaign, reporting that 16,503 Palestinian children have been killed since October 7, 2023. At the same time, starvation and disease are now claiming additional young lives, compounding what officials describe as a multi-layered humanitarian catastrophe.
In a statement published Thursday via Telegram, the ministry said the child death toll “reflects the extent of the direct and systematic targeting of the weakest and most innocent segments of society.”
The numbers, drawn from more than seven months of relentless bombardment, are categorized by age: 916 infants under one year, 4,365 children aged 1 to 5, 6,101 aged 6 to 12, and 5,124 teenagers between 13 and 17.
“The tragic figures do not only express innocent lives lost,” the ministry stated, “but also reflect the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster and the depth of the crime committed against an entire generation that was supposed to be protected, cared for, and educated.”
The statement further accused Israeli forces of turning children into “targets of airplane missiles and tank shells.”
Just weeks earlier, on May 5, the ministry had reported 16,278 children killed, highlighting a horrifying average of one child killed every 40 minutes. Among them were 908 infants who never saw their first birthday and 311 children who were born and killed during the war.
Starvation deepens the child death toll
While the bombs continue to fall, a second deadly threat is tightening its grip on Gaza’s children: starvation. On Thursday, Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan revealed that 29 people, mostly children and elderly,have recently died from starvation-related causes, signaling the collapse of Gaza’s already devastated health and nutrition infrastructure.
“In the last couple of days we lost 29 children,” Abu Ramadan said, later clarifying that the figure also included elderly victims. His remarks came as Israel allowed the first food aid trucks to enter Gaza in 11 weeks, but aid officials warn that what is arriving is “just a fraction” of what’s needed to prevent further loss of life.
Concerns about the deteriorating situation have been raised by the international community. Aid organizations such as UNICEF and Save the Children report that over 3,100 children under the age of five have already died due to hunger, with many more suffering from severe malnutrition. Some children are reportedly so weak that they have lost the ability to cry.
These deaths are not isolated but part of what health workers describe as a rapidly growing wave of preventable deaths from both hunger and disease.
Adding to the ongoing tragedy, Gaza’s civil defense agency reported Thursday that 52 more people were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes since dawn. Agency official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir stated that dozens more were wounded in the intensified attacks across multiple areas of the besieged Strip.
As of today, the total death toll in Gaza stands at over 53,655, with 121,950 people injured, numbers that continue to rise daily under the weight of bombs, starvation, and international inaction.
Health officials and humanitarian agencies say Gaza is facing not just a military assault but an existential crisis, one that is eliminating its future generation through violence, hunger, and neglect. The Ministry of Health concluded its appeal with a renewed call for urgent international intervention “to stop the aggression and hold Israeli leaders accountable for crimes against children and unarmed civilians.”
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