The Guardian published a special report on Wednesday featuring the names and photos of 18,457 Palestinian children killed during Israel’s war in Gaza, a number that continues to rise amid ongoing bombing. The report, based on data from the Gaza Ministry of Health, says that one child has been killed approximately every hour since the conflict began, humanizing the statistics by giving each child an identity that reflects nearly two years of loss.
Almost a third of the identified deaths are children, many of whom died along with siblings and friends. This list only includes cases confirmed to have been treated in hospitals, and does not include cases still buried under rubble or indirectly dying from starvation or disease. Aid agencies have warned that at least 150 children are starving to death and countless more are dying from preventable diseases as the lockdown turns essential goods into scarce resources. More than 40,000 children have been injured, and Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees in the world.
Rights groups and genocide scholars say Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide, citing mass killings and attacks on critical civilian infrastructure. The scale of casualties is far lower than in past conflicts. The 2008 Israeli operation killed 345 children in 22 days, and the 2014 attack killed 548 children in 50 days, far fewer than in the current war. According to research by the Oslo Peace Research Institute, Gaza is classified as an area of ”extreme conflict”, with one in 50 children dying in the area, making it one of the most dangerous places for children today.