UNICEF reports 265 Palestinian children killed in Gaza since October 2025 ceasefire, with no data on which side initiated incidents

UNICEF stated on Friday that Israeli forces have killed at least 265 Palestinian children in Gaza since October 2025. The agency also reported that more than 400 Palestinian children have been injured in the same period. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva that a Palestinian child has been killed on average every day for more than eight months since the October 2025 ceasefire announcement.

Elder said the deaths show the limits of the truce. “This week: a 2-year-old boy was shot and killed by Israeli forces; a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed inside his tent; a 5-year-old boy and his father were killed by an Israeli strike, and on and on it goes,” Elder said.

He added that a 12-year-old girl was shot in the chest inside her tent and a three-year-old girl was shot in the face by a bullet from a quadcopter drone inside her home.

An Israeli air strike hit a tent sheltering displaced families in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday, injuring at least five people, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Palestinian health authorities stated on Thursday that Israeli attacks have killed at least 73,018 Palestinians and wounded 173,273 since October 7, 2023.

The same authorities said Israeli attacks have killed 1,007 people and wounded 3,165 since the ceasefire took effect on October 11, and that rescue teams have recovered 784 bodies from previously inaccessible areas.

UNICEF also stated that 247 children have been killed and 992 injured in Lebanon since hostilities escalated on March 2. Elder said hundreds of children in Gaza need medical evacuation and that Israeli restrictions on essential medicines are increasing risks of infection and amputation.