Description

Graphics:
Live Map: List of children and teenagers killed.
[Click on the map or list to view the stories of the children and teenagers killed, along with testimonies from eyewitnesses and family members and the findings of B’Tselem’s investigation into each case.] Published by Btselem

Fatalities by Age. Published by Btselem

Fatalities by Year. Published by Btselem
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Unshielded Childhood: Palestinian children and teenagers killed by Israel in the West Bank in 2025

by Btselem
29 June 2026

Background

Since October 2023, Israel has been waging an extensive assault on all aspects of Palestinian existence in the West Bank. This includes a broad, systematic violation of human rights, first among them the most basic right – to life. Lethal, unbridled violence employed by the Israeli regime’s armed forces, including the military and settler militias, has led to an unprecedent increase in the killing of Palestinians, and particularly the killing of children and teenagers by Israeli forces. 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. Five others were killed by settlers. In 2025 alone, the year that is the focus of this investigation, Israeli forces killed 54 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank.

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. Those responsible do not try to hide this policy; rather, they give it full systemic backing, as reflected in the remarks of Central Command Chief Avi Bluth, who 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.

The Israeli system does not stop at justifying these killings after the fact. It also refrains almost entirely from holding the perpetrators accountable. According to data from the human rights organization Yesh Din, since the start of the war in October 2023, no indictments are known to have been filed in cases involving killings in the West Bank. Yet the immunity guaranteed in advance and the absence of any real demand for accountability after these crimes are committed are not confined to the legal sphere. They are also reflected in “public impunity” that stems from the Israeli public’s indifference to the killing of Palestinian children. In this context, the sharp rise in the killing of children in the West Bank by Israeli forces cannot be separated from the more than 21,000 Palestinian children that Israel has killed as part of its genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The fact that even this inconceivable number has not led to public demands for a change in the policy of killing shows how far the dehumanization of Palestinians has gone in Israeli eyes. These processes are what enables a reality of killing children as a routine matter.

A bloody history of children and teenagers killed

The scale of the killings since the start of the war in October 2023 recalls – and even exceeds, relative to the length of the period – the scale of killing documented during the second intifada. In less than four and a half years, from October 2000 to 8 February 2005 (when the Sharm el-Sheikh Agreements were signed, widely regarded as marking the official end of the intifada), Israeli forces killed 251 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank. Another five were killed by settlers during that time.

This investigation focuses on 2025, during which Israel killed 54 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank. For comparison, from the end of the second intifada on 9 February 2005 to the end of 2021 – almost 17 years – Israeli forces killed 194 Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank. Ten others were killed by Israeli civilians during that period, and two more by an Israeli actor whom B’Tselem was unable to determine whether he was a soldier or civilian. The years 2023 and 2024 saw a record number of child and teen fatalities: in 2023, 120 Palestinian children and teenagers were killed, 80 of them in under three months after 7 October. In 2024, 89 children and teenagers were killed.

Although the number of Palestinian children and teenagers killed by Israel declined in 2025 compared to the previous two years, it remains one of the deadliest years recorded over the last two decades. Compared to the period from 2005 to 2021, in which an average of 13 Palestinian children and teenagers were killed every year by Israeli soldiers and civilians, the figures in 2025 more than quadrupled. In that year, three children between the ages of two and nine were killed, nine children between the ages of 10 and 13, 17 teens between the ages of 14 and 15, 16 teens aged 16, and 9 teens aged 17.

The spike in the killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank began in 2022. That year, the number of fatalities more than doubled, from 16 in 2021 to 34 in 2022. The increase coincided with the military's declared easing of open-fire regulations at the end of 2021, reportedly permitting soldiers to use lethal fire against stone throwers 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. After 7 October 2023, the rules of engagement were further expanded, leading to another sharp rise in fatalities. This escalation was fueled by desire for revenge and growing dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli public discourse (see chapter "Incitement to Genocide and Dehumanization Since October 2023" in Our Genocide, July 2025).

From the beginning of 2025 through 7 June 2026, Israeli forces killed 12 children and teenagers in the West Bank – including two brothers, 5 and 6 years old, in the town of Tamun, and a seven-month-old baby in the city of Hebron, killed by Israeli forces who fired at the cars they were driving in with their parents. In addition, a settler shot and killed a 14-year-old.

Breakdown of incidents in which Israeli forces killed Palestinian children and teenagers in 2025

B’Tselem’s investigation of these cases found that only two of the 54 Palestinian children and teenagers killed in the West Bank in 2025 were armed with firearms at the time they were shot. Another four threw improved explosive devices (IEDs) at Israeli forces, and one assaulted a police officer with a knife. Thirteen were shot while throwing stones at roads or at armored Israeli forces, with no injuries reported from the stone-throwing. By contrast, at least 21 were not involved in any clashes, even when clashes were taking place nearby that included stone-throwing, hurling explosives or live fire. Regarding 12 minors, the military claimed they had tried to injure forces by throwing Molotov cocktails, IEDs or stones; B’Tselem’s investigation could neither verify nor refute this claim. Another teen was the object of a targeted killing. Forty-seven of the children and teenagers were killed by gunfire, and the remaining seven in airstrikes.

Eleven of the children and teenagers were killed by gunfire from military ambushes. In these incidents: two were shot while throwing stones at a road; regarding two others, the military claimed they had been throwing stones, but B'Tselem's investigation could neither verify nor refute those claims; one was shot while passing near a spot where soldiers were lying in ambush and was not engaged in any activity; and six were killed after the military alleged they had thrown Molotov cocktails, and B'Tselem's investigation could neither verify nor refute the allegations.

Nine other minors, including two girls, were killed during military raids on Palestinian communities. No arrests were carried out during these raids, and no clashes developed. One was killed inside her home, two were killed near their homes, four were passing by and one teen was killed at his workplace. Regarding the latter, B'Tselem's investigation could neither verify nor refute the military’s claim that he had tried to hurl an IED.

Four minors were killed during arrest operations. One was the target for arrest, one participated in an exchange of fire during the operation, one threw stones at a military jeep and another was passing by.

Seven minors were killed in airstrikes. One had planted an IED, two were mistakenly identified as having planted IEDs, and four were in the yard of their home or on the street when they were killed.

Two other minors were killed after attacking or allegedly attacking Israeli forces. One attacked a police officer with a knife. The military claimed the other had tried to run over a soldier, but B'Tselem's investigation found that this allegation does not align with the facts.

Eighteen other children and teenagers were killed during clashes. Of these, 12 were killed in clashes involving only stone-throwing; 8 threw stones at military or police forces, including 4 who threw stones at armored military vehicles; 2 threw stones at homes being raided by soldiers; and 2 others threw stones at soldiers or police officers, with one of them starting while the forces were inside an armored jeep and continuing after they got out. Three of the teenagers did not take part in the clashes at all, and in another case it is unknown whether he participated. Six other minors were killed during clashes that also involved the hurling of IEDs or live fire: one took part in an exchange of fire, three hurled IEDs, one did not participate in the clashes and another aimed a laser pointer at soldiers.

The remaining three minors were killed in circumstances not described above. One was shot while throwing stones at a checkpoint. Another was shot after, according to the military, he had thrown an IED, a claim B'Tselem could neither verify nor refute. The third was shot after, according to the military, he was suspected of setting fire to an object near an earthen roadblock, a claim that likewise could neither be verified nor disproved.

Denying and delaying medical treatment

In nearly a quarter of the cases, involving 13 children and teenagers, the military delayed or completely prevented medical teams or local residents from reaching the wounded persons to provide first aid or take them to hospital. In at least four cases, access was blocked for several minutes, including one case in which soldiers raided the clinic to which the wounded person was taken and held up his transferal to hospital. In four cases, access was denied for a prolonged period of between 20 and 40 minutes. In another five cases, access was denied for an unknown period. In at least nine cases documented by B'Tselem, soldiers fired live shots in the air or at residents and medical personnel to keep them away from the wounded persons.

In cases where soldiers removed the wounded from the scene themselves, Palestinian residents and medical teams were completely denied access and it remains unknown whether the military provided any medical treatment before the victims were declared dead or made any other attempt to save their lives.

Withholding bodies

As of 6 June 2026, Israel was still holding 18 of the 54 bodies, preventing their families from burying them and saying goodbye. This forms part of Israel's long-standing policy of withholding bodies, which is inconsistent with international law. Denying families the right to bury their loved ones, observe mourning rituals, and visit their graves causes immense suffering, all the more unbearable when the deceased are children and teenagers.


* The stories of the children and teenagers killed, along with testimonies from eyewitnesses and family members and the findings of B’Tselem’s investigation into each case, are presented on the map and list above.