Reposted from Al Jazeera English’s Youtube, June 29, 2026
Transcript:
Doctors in Gaza keep treating one specific kind of patient, children with a single bullet wound. The adult beside them unharmed. A UN commission found that 17 doctors saw the same kind of injury in different hospitals.
One doctor witnessed five separate cases of children who’d been shot by a quadcopter. And that was just in her first two weeks of deployment in Gaza. A bomb can miss its target. A sniper rarely will. So, is the Israeli military deliberately targeting children in Gaza? In the first 2 years of Israel’s war on Gaza, its military killed more than 20,000 children.
That’s nearly 1/3 of everyone killed and about 2% of all the children in Gaza. Most died in [music] air strikes. More than 40,000 were injured. But the UN Commission found a second method. It documented 168 children who had been shot. Of those 73 were hit in the head, 22 in the chest. Forensic analysis confirmed single shots in 12 of 15 examined cases.
According to the UN report, a clean single wound indicates a high degree of precision, suggesting that the shot was carefully aimed. But who would shoot a child? The Israeli military uses the DAN 338 bolt-action sniper rifle made by Israel Weapons Industries. It’s accurate up to a range of,200 m. A quadcopter with high resolution camera and night vision allows the operator to clearly see their target.
On Israeli television, officials called the drone’s accuracy something no human sniper can achieve. Precision is sold as valuable, the difference between killing the enemy and sparing civilians. Hit the fighter, spare the crowd. But that doesn’t always happen. The commission found children shot beside adults who were not hit at all. In case after case, medics reported the same.
The child shot, the parent untouched. At least 70 of the documented children were shot by quadcopters where the operator watches a screen before firing. The ceasefire didn’t change things much. According to UNICEF, more than 100 children have been killed in Gaza since October 2025.
The commission found rising attacks near the so-called yellow line, an ever shifting unclear boundary established by the Israeli military. So, what happens to the ones who survive? Across Gaza, 846 children have lost a limb per person, the highest rate of child amputees anywhere in the world.
Since the war, at least 21,000 children have been newly disabled. Some were hurt by bombs that leave room for the word mistake. A single shot precisely aimed does not.
Al Jazeera has over 70 bureaus around the globe, more than 3,000 employees from more than 95 countries, and is available in over 150 countries and territories in more than 430 million homes. Launched in1996, It is an independent news organisation funded in part by the Qatari government.
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