The Mission of the State of Palestine is recalling the children who were murdered in the latest Israeli assault on Palestine. They were entirely innocent, and had spent their short lives in fear as a direct result of Israeli aggression.

Overall, 68 children were killed in Gaza. The last was 9 year old Obaida Salah al- Dahdouh who was killed on 10th June after an unexploded Israeli bomb blew up where he was playing.

Some families were completely decimated and were described by the Palestinian Ministry of Health as being “wiped from our records”.
· 8 children from the Abu Hattab family had gathered in their new clothes to celebrate Eid together when their building was levelled. The sole survivor was 5 month old baby Omar. Their father was out when it happened and came back to news that his sons, nephews and wife had been killed. Suheib, 14, Yahya, 11, Abdelrahman, 8, Osama, 5 along with their mother Maha, Maha’s brother Youssef Abu Hatab, Yousef’s wife, Yasmin Hassan, 31, and their children Yamen Abu Hatab, 5, Bilal Abu Hatab, 9, Miriam Abu Hatab, 7, and Yousef Abu Hatab, 10 were all murdered.
· An Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinian children and their parents early on the morning of Thursday 13th May in the northern Gaza Strip. 6 year old Amir Rafat Mohammad Tanani and his 3 brothers, Adham, Ismail and Ahmad as well as the boys’ parents, Rafat and Rawya who was pregnant were all murdered.
· The al-Qawlaq family owned two adjacent apartment buildings on Al Wahda Street, a main thoroughfare in Gaza City. At around 1am on May 16th, Israeli strikes reduced both buildings to rubble, killing more than 20 members of the extended family, including eight children: Yara al-Qawlaq 9, Hala al-Qawlaq 12, Rula al-Qawlaq 5; Zaid al-Qawlaq 8, Qusai al-Qawlaq, 6 months; Adam al-Qawlaq 3; Ahmad al-Qawlaq 15 and Hana al-Qawlaq 14. Hala, Yara and 5 year old Rula were among the 11 murdered children who had been attending trauma care at the Norwegian Refugee Council.
· Dr Ayman Abu Al-Ouf, head of the internal medicine department of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, was killed along with 12 members of his extended family. They included his mother and father, his wife Reem, and their 17-year-old son Tawfik and 12-year-old-daughter Tala. His death was described by his colleagues as “a catastrophe”.
· An Israeli drone-fired missile killed 17-year-old Khaled Imad Khaled Qanou in a targeted attack on May 13 near the Gaza perimeter fence. Subsequently, news was spread that Khaled was a member of an armed resistance group in an attempt to dehumanise and therefore justify his killing. Extra-judicial killings are illegal under international law.
· Nadine Awwad, 16, was killed by Hamas rocket fire. She was from the Bedouin village of Dahmash. Seven years ago, the Israeli High Court of Justice ordered the state of Israel to regulate the village after failing to provide essential services, including bomb shelters, to the village for decades.
· Ahmad Rami Mahmoud al-Hawajri, 13, was returning home from the grocery store when the Israeli fighter jet targeted a residential building in the heart of the densely populated Al-Bureij refugee camp in Central Gaza on May 13. Ahmad was killed in the attack. He was struck in the head with shrapnel and sustained burns all over his body.
· All 4 al-Ifranji children – Dima, Yazan, Mira and Amir – and their mother were killed on May 16th.
· 12-year-old Abdullah Ashraf Abdullah Jouda was murdered on May 14, 2021, when Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
· Shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade killed six-year-old Buthaina Mahmoud Issa Obaid in North Gaza May 14. Buthaina was playing outside her home on Nuzha Street in Jabalia when she was struck in the back of her head by shrapnel
· Dana, Yahya, Zain and Lana Ishkatona were all killed along with their mother. Suzy was the sole survivor. She spent hours trapped in the rubble as her mother and siblings passed away around her. She has barely spoken since and is deeply traumatised by her ordeal.
· An Israeli drone-fired missile killed 15-year-old Mohammad Saber Ibrahim Suleiman and his father Saber Ibrahim Mahmoud Suleiman as they stood on their farmland outside the city of Jabalia
· An Israeli warplane attacked Jamal al-Zamli’s two-story home in the Tanour neighborhood of Rafah, killing two-year-old Hoor Momen Jamal al-Zamli and her mother Khuloud, who was five months pregnant.
· An Israeli airstrike killed six-month-old Ibrahim Mohammad Ibrahim al-Rantisi when a warplane fired a missile at a three-story home in Rafah according to documentation collected by DCIP. The attack also killed Ibrahim’s grandmother, uncle, and aunt and injured 15 others, including 7 children. The images of Ibrahim’s tiny body being carried by a jaded paramedic were horrific.
· Mustafa Mohammad Mahmoud Obaid, 16, and five-year-old Baraa Wisam Ahmad al-Gharabli died when a rocket fired from Gaza fell short.
· Lamya al-Attar and her three children – Amir, Islam and Mohammed were killed in heavy shelling of a residential area which displaced hundreds of families.
· 13-year-old Lina Mohammad Mahmoud Issa was killed along with her mother, Manar after, their home was completely destroyed by a missile.
· An Israeli aerial drone provided images to a naval vessel which targeted and murdered 10-year-old Dima Sa’d Ali Asaliya in the northern Gaza Strip as she carried an electric breadmaker from her sister’s house across the street to her own home. The explosion ripped her little body apart, perforating the bread maker with dozens of holes. The blast shattered her home’s windows and blew the sandals right off her feet.
· Rafeef Abu Dayer was killed by shrapnel along with her uncle as they sat down to a family lunch. The image of her grief stricken father holding her body has been beamed around the world.
· Israeli forces murdered 17-year-old Fawziya Nasser Mohammad Abu Faris and her nine-month-old nephew Mohammad Salameh Mohammad Abu Dayyeh when they struck their modest home with an artillery shell. Fawziya’s 2 adult sisters were murdered in the same attack.
· Farhha Ibrahim Khalil Junaid, 38, was in the kitchen when she heard the sound of a drone missile that hit a motorcycle in the street near her home. “Two of my sons [Mohammed,11, and Salem, 17] who were playing on the roof started shouting at me: ‘Mum! … Our brothers are dead in the street!’”. Musa, 19, was killed instantly and Wasim, 21, was seriously injured.
· Yahya Khalifa was 13, he loved his bike and his small collection of worn out toys (pictured here.) He went to the shop for ice cream and was killed in an airstrike.
· Mahmoud Tolbeh was just 12 and died two days after being struck by shrapnel as he left the barbers after a fresh haircut.
· A U.S.-sourced Israeli Apache attack helicopter killed two Palestinian children and critically injured a third in Al-Fukharia village. Hamada Attia Abed al-Emour, 13, was on his way to a store near his home accompanied by his two cousins, Ammar Tayseer Mohammad al-Emour, 10, and Elyan Moneer Ibrahim al-Emour, 12, when the Israeli attack helicopter fired two thermal flares and then a missile in the direction of the children. The street was entirely quiet when the attack occurred. Hamada’s father witnessed his death.
· 2 year-old Nagham Iyad Abdulfattah Salha lived with her parents. They were all murdered by an Israeli air or drone strike to their apartment. Nagham’s father, Iyad, was disabled and required a wheelchair, and her mother, Imhawish, was eight months pregnant.
· Hamza Mahmoud Yassin Ali, 12, was struck by shrapnel from an Israeli drone-fired missile in Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood around 1 pm on Tuesday 11 May and died the following day. Hamza was participating in a funeral procession.
· 13-year-old Hala Hussein Rafat Rifi was killed in an overnight Israeli airstrike according to documentation collected by DCIP. Hala’s six-year-old sister, Rimas, and her father Hussein were also wounded in the airstrike.
· Ahmad Rami Mahmoud al-Hawajri, 13, was returning home from a grocery store around 3.20 pm when a residential building in the heart of the densely populated Al-Bureij refugee camp in Central Gaza was hit in an airstrike on May 13
· Mina Iyad Fathi Sharir, 2 years old, died in Shifa hospital on May 18. She had been hospitalized in critical condition with third-degree burns following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on May 11. An Israeli warplane fired two missiles at a two-story home in Gaza City’s Al-Manara neighborhood completely destroying the residential building. The same attack killed Mina’s sister, 15-year-old Lina Iyad Fathi Sharir, and both of the children’s parents.
· 17-year-old Bashar Ahmad Ibrahim Samour was murdered near the Gaza perimeter fence in Abasan Al-Jadida, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Israeli forces deployed on the opposite side of the perimeter fence shot and killed Bashar. He worked as a farmer and was connecting irrigation pipes about 500 meters from the fence when he was shot and killed.
· Rahaf Mohammad Attalla al-Masri, 10, and her cousin Yazan Sultan Mohammad al-Masri, 2; brothers Marwan Yousef Attalla al-Masri, 6, and Ibrahim Yousef Attalla al-Masri, 11; as well as Hussein Muneer Hussein Hamad, 11, and 16-year-old Ibrahim Abdullah Mohammad Hassanain, were all killed in an explosion 2500 metres from the perimeter fence. When the blast occurred, members of the al-Masri family were reportedly harvesting wheat in the field outside their home, and their children were playing nearby.
· A missile from an Israeli weaponized aerial drone killed 17-year-old Mohammad Ahmad Atya Bhar on Saturday afternoon in Gaza City’s Shuja’iyya neighborhood. Mohammad was returning home after visiting a nearby shop when the Israeli aerial drone targeted him and a group of boys who had gathered near the market
· On May 17, an Israeli drone-fired missile strike killed Yousef Rafeeq Ismail al-Baz, 13, and critically injured his 16-year-old brother, Ramadan.
· The last one to be found was 2 year old Mariam Mohammad Odeh Talbani who had been missing and presumed dead since May 12. Her little broken body was recovered from rubble on May 21st. A missile fired by an Israeli warplane had struck the third floor of the Salha residential building in Gaza City’s Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood around 1:30 a.m. on May 12. The attack also killed Mariam’s brother, 4 year old Zaid Mohammad Odeh Talbani and her mother, Rima, who was five months pregnant. 13-year-old Hala Hussein Rafat Rifi was killed in the same attack.

As these attacks on civilians were taking place, Israeli parliamentarian Benny Gantz made a video (available on the Israeli army youtube account) in which he said “If Israeli citizens have to sleep in bunkers, then Gaza will burn”

Israeli occupation forces stepped up their aggression across the West Bank with the UN recording 14th May as having the highest number of Palestinian deaths since they began record-keeping in 2005.

· Among the fatalities was Obaida Akram Abdurahman Jawabra, 17, who was shot dead by Israeli forces with live ammunition at the entrance to his refugee camp outside Hebron. Al Jazeera covered his life and death.
· Mohammad Khalil Younis Mohammad Freijat, 14, was struck in the head with Israeli-fired live ammunition around 11 p.m. on May 12, in Hebron’s Bab Al-Zawya neighborhood and died from his injuries on May 16
· 16 year old Islam Wael Fahmi Dar Nasser was murdered on Tuesday, May 18, in the village of Bil’in, near Ramallah. Islam was shot in the head during a demonstration
· Rashid Mohammad Rashid Abu Arra, 16, was murdered by Israeli forces with live ammunition early in the morning of Wednesday, May 12, in the village of Aqaba. He was shot twice in the back as he ran away from soldiers who reversed their vehicle, aimed and fired at him as he ran.

From May 1st 2021, 289 Palestinians were murdered by Israeli occupation forces or settlers.
· 22 girls
· 48 boys
· 42 women
· 176 men

The essential infrastructure which children need in order to thrive was also targeted. Schools, health centres, community and cultural structures and WASH facilities were all damaged or destroyed.

There must be an end to these grave breaches of international law by Israel, the occupying power. Targeting civilians, including children, and essential civilian infrastructure is a war crime. This was not a war but the deliberate targeting of a defenceless civilian population who have been blockaded into one of the most densely populated areas on earth by a hostile occupation. Absent any measures of accountability, Israeli occupation forces will continue to violate international law.