Targeting of Civilians and Children
Doctors in Gaza observed a disturbing pattern: children with a single gunshot wound to the head or chest - de Volkskrant
”We just had a 6-month old that came in with a bullet entry in the chest through the abdomen and died”
American Dr.Tipu Khan in Gaza 9/25
”What do you mean you saw kids shot in the head everyday?
American Dr. Faroze Sidwha
"Up to 40,000 children in Gaza are believed to have lost at least one parent as Israeli forces continue a brutal offensive." Bombed, starving and orphaned: The horrific plight of children arriving in Gaza’s hospitals alone - The Independent
“For children in Gaza, nowhere is safe. The psychological toll of the war in Gaza on children is severe. 49% have expressed a wish to die. 96% feel that death is imminent”
New study, June 2024: Gaza’s children face severe psychological toll amid catastrophic war - War Child
“These include the prevalence of traumatic night-time arrests raids against children in their family home; children being painfully hand-tied, blindfolded, transferred to detention on the floor of a military vehicle, and subjected to physical and verbal abuse by Israeli soldiers.”
What Palestinian Children Face in Israeli Prisons - Time
Inside Israel’s ‘torture’ jails where Palestinians held without charge tell of brutal treatment - The Independent
Israel kills 11 family members in deadliest Gaza ceasefire violation - Aljazeera, October 19, 2025
It's supposed to serve as a warning to "Hamas terrorists and Gaza residents that any violation or attempt to cross the line will be met with fire", Katz said. Palestinians crossing the lines have triggered several lethal incidents in recent days. Yesterday, Hamas accused Israel of killing nine people who had crossed into Israeli-held territory.” - Sky News, October 19, 2025
Civilians made up of 15 of every 16 people killed in Gaza since march, new data suggests - Irish Examiner
More than 10% of Gaza’s population has been killed or injured, former Israeli military chief says - CNN
How the death toll in Gaza is recorded and why experts say it is likely an undercounted - ABC
"Publicly reported figures show that more than 65 000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 165 000 wounded .. A capture-recapture analysis of mortality up to 30 June 2024 estimated an under-count of nearly 41% for officially recorded deaths. "
Patterns of war related trauma in Gaza during armed conflict: survey study of international healthcare workers - BMJ
"We had kids that had half of their neck off, that we had to intubate, and put the trachea together, to intubate. We try to do miracles out of nothing here. The doctors here are amazing, but we can't function anymore with no equipment, complete blockade."
Australian Doctors Nada Abu Alrub and Dr. Saya Aziz and Al-Shifa Hospital Director Abu Salmiya, September 25, 2025
"Every conflict zone is horrible. It’s mankind at its worst. But what I've seen in Gaza is exponentially worse. Because it’s basically no holds barred, no rules at all and the targets aren’t enemy combatants. I've seen children getting hurt everywhere, but they’re always just a fraction, a minority. In Gaza they are the people primarily getting hurt."
- Dr Adam Hamawy, who served in Iraq as a Trauma Surgeon for the US military and in Bosnia during the Srebrenica Genocide, May 5, 2025
“You’ll hear a big huge bomb, then you’ll know within 5-10 minutes, you’re going to get a mass casualty. You’ll hear the wailing, the screams, the chaos … family members bringing in the patients.” “Bits of flesh everywhere, dangling bits of toes, muscle, tendons… The horror of it all.”
- Australian anesthesiologist Dr. Saya Aziz, September 22, 2025
"I am here as a physician bearing witness to the deliberate destruction of healthcare, the targeting of my colleagues, and the erasure of a people," he stated, describing surgeries performed on filthy floors without anaesthesia and children dying from preventable causes due to Israel's blockade of medical supplies."
"He recounted treating pregnant women "whose pelvises had been obliterated and their foetuses cut in two," and revealed that 83% of American medics in Gaza reported seeing children shot in the head or chest."
- American surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidwha, UN Security Council Testimony, November 26, 2025
"So, the drones would come down and pick off civilians, children. This was day after day after day, operating on children who would say: 'I was lying on the ground after a bomb had dropped and this quadcopter came down and hovered over me and shot me'. And that's clearly a deliberate act, and it was a persistent act -- persistent targeting of civilians day after day."
"We had one or two mass casualty incidents every day and 60-70% of the people we treated were women and children."
- British Transplant Surgeon and Professor Nizam Mamode, Testimony to the UK Parliament, September 22, 2025
Sky News: Doctors on the Frontline
"Within days of arriving, two of Gaza’s main hospitals are hit. The Israelis forces will later confirm they drop 50 bombs in this operation. Dr. Tom Potokar's footage cearly shows a huge number of patients and staff in the hospital. They are doing atleast 10 surgeries a day and the bulk are children.”
”It’s the total inhumanity and the cruelty”
Professor Tom Potokar, Former Chief Surgeon of the International Red Cross
