We are watching children, children who are just like our own, try to survive a genocide, and yet there is no accountability, no one demanding and ensuring that this nightmare is put to a stop, Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank at the highest rate since 1967
By Anam Alam, reposted from The New Arab, June 26, 2026
One of the world’s best-known children’s educators delivered an emotional plea for governments to act to protect Palestinian children on Friday, apologizing directly to a young girl from the occupied West Bank, saying world leaders had failed an entire generation.
Rachel Accurso, better known as ‘Ms Rachel’, struggled to hold back tears as she hosted an online press briefing held alongside the release of a new report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
The children’s educator repeatedly urged governments to move beyond statements of concern, saying the international community had failed to stop the suffering of children in Gaza.
“We are watching children, children who are just like our own, try to survive a genocide, and yet there’s been no action, no accountability, no one demanding and ensuring that this nightmare is put to a stop,” she said.
The briefing opened with testimony from Sara, a Palestinian girl from the occupied West Bank, who described growing up around Israeli military raids, tear gas, settler violence and repeated disruptions to her education.
“The right to play is not always safe for us,” she said, recalling how Israeli forces fired tear gas into a playground when she was ten years old.
“I want to speak to the world and say this clearly. Palestinian children are just like every other child. We have rights, we have dreams, and we have the right to a safe and better future,” she said.
Visibly moved by the testimony, Accurso responded by apologising directly to the young girl.
“On behalf of the grown-ups of the world, I apologize, because you have been so failed,” she said.
She later added that Palestinian children were “equal to all the children in the world”.
The briefing coincided with the publication of a new report by the UN Commission of Inquiry examining the impact of Israel’s military campaign on Palestinian children since October 2023.
The report documented numerous instances of snipers and quadcopters targeting children, even babies, with shots to the head.
The report concluded that Israeli forces had deliberately targeted Palestinian children and documented widespread physical and psychological harm, attacks on schools and healthcare facilities, and the long-term effects of the war on children’s development.
It also examined increasing violence against children in the occupied West Bank.
Chris Sidoti, a member of the Commission, told journalists the inquiry had relied on eyewitness testimony, medical records, CT scans, X-rays, satellite imagery and forensic evidence before reaching its conclusions.
“Our conclusions are that the Israeli Defense Forces are intentionally targeting children in Gaza,” he said.
“That’s a very serious conclusion to have reached, but it is one that we have reached on the best available evidence,” he added.
Sidoti said investigators had also documented children dying from causes indirectly linked to the war, including starvation, disease and the collapse of healthcare services.
“We have absolutely no idea how many children have died in Gaza since the latest fighting began,” he said. “We know that there are almost 22,000 children’s bodies that have been identified, but that’s just the beginning.”
He urged governments to implement the Commission’s recommendations, saying states had legal obligations to act.
“The time for action is now, but it’s long past as well,” he said.
Emergency physician Dr Mahmooda “Mimi” Syed, who volunteered in Gaza during two medical missions, described repeatedly treating children with gunshot wounds.
“Something that I documented when I was there and collected evidence was forensic and medical evidence of children who were shot by gunshots, single shots to the head, to the neck, to the chest,” she said. “I saw this every day in both hospitals [where] I worked.”
Syed said evidence collected by medical teams had since been published by Brown University’s Costs of War project and “corroborates the UN Commission’s report on the fact that Israeli soldiers are deliberately shooting children”.
She described operating on a baby whose leg had been shredded without adequate pain medication or surgical equipment, before recalling a two-year-old who died from liver failure after contracting hepatitis A because of contaminated water and the collapse of sanitation systems.
“I never thought in my entire career that I would have to do anything like this,” she said.
She also described widespread malnutrition among children, saying she regularly saw blackened, decaying teeth caused by severe nutritional deficiencies.
Growing emotional as she concluded, Syed appealed directly to world leaders while reflecting on her own family.
“I implore you, as a physician who took a Hippocratic oath, and a mother of three small children myself, I implore you to implement the recommendations made by the Commission of pursuing accountability for all of the crimes that have been committed,” she said.
“If we can’t protect our children, we are doomed as a species. It just simply cannot be the norm,” she added.
When asked by The New Arab about the long-term physical and mental effects of the war on children, including the impact of nearly three years without education, Syed said the consequences were already evident.
“These children are undergoing suffering and devastation and cruelty every day. Still,” she said, adding that “violence has a long-term impact on growing children and their brain development. So, we’re seeing it now, but we will continue to see this if this doesn’t stop.”
Before opening the floor to questions, Accurso introduced a video message from children in Gaza who had lost one or both parents, noting that the Commission’s report estimated more than 58,000 children had been orphaned during the conflict.
Closing the briefing, Accurso made a final appeal to governments and journalists.
“What does it say about us as countries and leaders if we can’t take these actions to stop the killing, maiming, starvation of children, it’s just devastating, and I know people around the world are horrified and heartbroken and exhausted, and I just hope we can stop saying things and start doing things, because it is our sacred duty to take care of all of the children of the world,” she said.
Addressing journalists directly, she added: “Please be people who cover this, and who make this madness, and this cruelty stop. […] We all know what’s happening.”
*Additionally*
Israel killing Palestinian children in the West Bank at highest rate since 1967, B’Tselem says
Reposted from Middle East Eye, June 29, 2026
Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank at the highest rate since 1967, with 54 shot dead in 2025, B’Tselem said on Monday.
The Israeli human rights group said nearly one in four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the occupied territory since October 2023 has been a minor, marking the highest proportion since the occupation began.
Despite the high child death toll, no one has been held accountable and there are no known indictments linked to the killings since October 2023.
B’Tselem said the deaths were not “isolated mistakes or violations of military orders”.
Instead, it said they were the result of an Israeli policy that permits lax rules of engagement, routinely labels Palestinians as “terrorists”, and shields soldiers who use lethal force.
“The widespread, unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of a broader Israeli policy that enables the killing of Palestinians with virtually no accountability,” B’Tselem’s Executive Director Yuli Novak said.
“When the military commander of the area boasts that Israel is killing Palestinians ‘like we haven’t killed since 1967,’ he is confirming exactly that: the system does not merely back those who pull the trigger – it effectively grants them a licence to kill.”
‘Green light’ to kill children
Earlier this year, Israel’s top military commander in the occupied West Bank, Avi Bluth, said the army was killing Palestinians at levels “not seen since 1967”.
He made the remarks in a closed forum, where he also defended looser rules of engagement allowing troops to open fire on unarmed Palestinians.
Bluth acknowledged a discriminatory approach under which Jewish Israeli stone-throwers are not targeted, while Palestinians carrying out similar acts are shot at.
“In three years, we have killed 1,500 terrorists,” he said, referring to Palestinians.
“So how is there no intifada? Why aren’t they taking to the streets? Why is the Palestinian public indifferent? Why are there no disturbances?”
Bluth, a settler who has commanded Israeli forces in the West Bank since 2024, added: “The Arabs understand that ‘if someone rises to kill you, kill him first’ is part of the rules of the Middle East, and therefore we are killing like we have not killed since 1967.”
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), Israeli forces have killed 1,105 Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since 7 October 2023, including at least 242 children.
B’Tselem said that in nearly a quarter of the cases it documented, Israeli forces “delayed or prevented medical teams” from reaching wounded children, contributing to their deaths.
It also said Israel has seized dozens of bodies of Palestinians it has killed. At least 18 children killed in 2025 are still being held by Israeli authorities.
While B’Tselem’s statement focused primarily on the occupied West Bank, the organisation said that the killings were linked to those in Gaza. A particular feature of Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been its focus on children.
“The killings in the West Bank cannot be separated from Israel’s killing of more than 21,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip,” B’Teslem said.
“By allowing Israel to kill on such a scale in Gaza without consequences, the international community has effectively given it a green light to pursue the same lethal policy in the West Bank.
“As long as Israel continues to enjoy near-total impunity in the world, the lives of Palestinians – including children – will remain unprotected and exposed.”
Anam Alam joined The New Arab in 2024 after freelancing post-university, having written for outlets such as Thred Media and SCREENSHOT. She has interviewed several high-profile individuals, including Alana Hadid, Leanne Mohamad, Humza Yousaf and Jeremy Corbyn and has covered the biggest topics in the Middle East.
Middle East Eye is a United Kingdom-based media website and channel that primarily focuses on news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the broader Muslim world.
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