Palestinian children look at the damage following a reported Israeli strike on a makeshift displacement camp in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis. AFP
The Palestinian resistance group said that Palestinian children endure a "tragic reality" while the United Nations marks the annual observance on November 20, pointing to what it characterizes as Israeli violations of international law and UN resolutions guaranteeing children's rights.
"Palestinian children live a tragic reality due to crimes committed by the Zionist occupation," reads the statement released by Hamas on their Telegram channel.
Hamas documented the scale of suffering afflicting Palestinian children across multiple territories:
In Gaza alone, the nearly two-year Israeli genocidal war has killed over 20,000 children, with thousands still missing beneath rubble.
The movement reported that more than 30,000 children have lost at least one parent, while thousands of wounded and sick children require urgent medical treatment unavailable in Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, at least 300 children have been killed during the past two years through "deliberate killing, ethnic cleansing, home demolitions, road and school closures, displacement attempts, and deprivation of education."
Hamas's statement comes amid ongoing International Criminal Court proceedings related to Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on allegations of war crimes, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity.
A displaced Palestinian man holds the body of his child Salem, killed in Israeli strikes, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. AFP
The statement emphasized that Israeli actions have "destroyed life's essentials—food, medicine, and clean water, as well as health, educational, and psychological care—in violation of international conventions and human values, and in disregard of UN resolutions guaranteeing Palestinian children's rights."
Hamas called for using World Children's Day to "expose the occupation's crimes against Palestinian children," placing responsibility on the international community to protect them and ensure access to dignified living conditions, including education, food, and medicine comparable to children worldwide.
The resistance movement also demanded recognition of Israeli crimes against children as "crimes against humanity that are not time-barred," calling for prosecution of "occupation leaders and settlers as war criminals before the International Criminal Court."
Hamas urged that Israel be listed in the UN's "List of Shame" for violators of children's rights, demanding that the international community compel cessation of what it described as crimes that are encouraged by "continued impunity."
Hamas also called on humanitarian and human rights organizations to "shoulder their responsibilities in exposing the occupation's crimes and protecting Palestinian children's right to live in dignity and safety on their land."
The movement affirmed its position that "targeting children constitutes part of the occupation's policies aimed at breaking our people's will," while declaring that "Palestine's children in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the 1948-occupied territories will remain symbols of resilience and steadfastness until the criminal occupation ends."
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