The New Dark Age

Having slaughtered more than 21,000 children in the Gaza Strip since the start of its genocidal assault on the besieged enclave in October 2023, Israel has accelerated the killing of Palestinian children in the West Bank. Just this week, the Israelis killed two children, while a new report has revealed that at least 27 children have been killed in the West Bank in 2026 alone, describing the killings as “not isolated incidents, but rather part of a broader policy and practice of excessive use of force, rooted in unlawful rules of engagement that seek to cement Israel’s settler colonial apartheid regime as it pursues its genocide against the Palestinian people.”

Violence by settlers, who act under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, has continued to escalate throughout the West Bank as the Israeli state swallows vast swathes of Palestinian land. Dispossession and murder have continued apace.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that settler militias opened fire on people who had gathered at al-Mughayir Boys’ School in Ramallah on Tuesday. Their assault killed Aws Hamdi al-Na’san (14), who was shot in the head. The other victim was Jehad Marzouq Abu Na’im, who was killed by a bullet to the chest. Incidentally, Aws’s father had been killed by settlers in the same village in 2019. Following the double murder, the genocidal occupation forces intervened to ensure that the murderers withdrew safely.

That same morning, Mohammed Majdi al-Ja’bari (16) was run over by a settler, killing him instantly. “According to available information, al-Ja’bari was riding his bicycle on his way to school when a vehicle driven by a settler struck him as part of a convoy accompanying an Israeli official,” PCHR reported. “As a result, the child was killed instantly.”

Alarmed by escalating Israeli violence, particularly against children in the West Bank, the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq submitted an urgent appeal to the United Nations on April 20.

“The killing of Palestinian children in the unlawfully occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been steadily rising since 2021, when 17 children were killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF),” the Al-Haq submission to the UN said.

“Al-Haq has been stringently documenting this increasing pattern of attacks against children — in 2022, this number increased to 36 children, followed by 121 children in 2023. In 2024, the death toll remained high with 92 children killed, and 54 children killed in 2025.”

The killing of Palestinian children has escalated at an alarming rate since the start of the genocide in Gaza. “According to OCHA [United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], between October 7, 2023, and March 28, 2026, 1,073 Palestinians, including at least 233 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” Al-Haq added.

“Of these, 27 have been killed since the beginning of 2026.”

The report meticulously documents 15 of the 27 killings recorded in the West Bank this year. Al-Haq said that the murdered children posed little threat to the Israelis, and many of them were killed while involved in routine civilian activities:

The victims, all minors, were killed in situations mainly involving low-level confrontations, such as stone throwing, or during routine civilian activities, including leaving places of worship, working on family land, or moving through their communities. In several cases, the children were shot from a distance away from IOF positions, without posing any immediate threat to life. Other incidents involved tear gas used in a way that led to fatal outcomes, or the blocking of access to urgent, life-saving medical care.

The organisation added that its investigation into the murders revealed “recurring patterns across these cases, including the use of live ammunition without warning, targeting of the upper body, a failure to abide by the principles of proportionality and subsidiarity, and the obstruction or delay of medical aid.”

Moreover, the longstanding Israeli practice of withholding the bodies of Palestinian martyrs also extends to children. “In several cases, the bodies of the children were withheld by the IOF, compounding the suffering to [sic] their families and communities and evincing a clear intent to cause serious mental harm,” the report added.

Of the 15 cases of murder documented in the Al-Haq report, one case particularly stands out for the sadistic Israeli behaviour towards Palestinian children.

On Sunday night, November 2, 2025, Jamil Atef Jamil Hanani (17) was shot in the abdomen by the IOF in Beit Furik, 7 km east of Nablus in the West Bank. “Jamil was shot in the front of his abdomen, with the bullet exiting through his back,” the report documents.

He was rushed to hospital, but the Israelis were not done with him yet.

While Jamil was in the emergency room, about five Israeli soldiers in full military gear stormed in, shouting and brandishing automatic weapons. A witness described:

“Less than a minute after the victim arrived, about five Israeli soldiers entered the emergency room shouting and pointing their guns at the staff. One approached Jamil’s bedside. I explained the severity of his injury. The soldier then took a photo of Jamil, the staff, and us with his cell phone before leaving the center smiling, as if relieved after seeing his condition.”

Hours later, Jamil died.

The wholesale slaughter of children in the Gaza Strip over the past two and a half years has normalised sadistic barbarism against Palestinian children. The non-stop livestream of their violent deaths and the gut-wrenching wail of their parents has barely moved an indifferent world, as their slaughter continues unabated despite the charade of a “ceasefire.”

If the world continues to accommodate, excuse, and look away from this reality, then what is being entrenched is not just a regional order shaped by force, but a dangerous precedent — one that will not remain confined to occupied Palestine or the wider Middle East, but will echo far beyond it, eroding the very idea that human life, especially that of a child, is inviolable.