Killings of Palestinian children are soaring in the West Bank. Advocates say it happens with impunity

WARNING: This story contains disturbing content.

When Israeli soldiers mistakenly killed three unarmed Israeli hostages — who were waving white flags — amid its offensive in Gaza last week, the Israeli military quickly put the situation under review and said what happened was "against our rules of engagement."

But human rights groups say there is little accountability when Israeli forces kill Palestinian children during operations in the occupied West Bank.

There have been more than 100 such killings this year — the highest toll on record, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which began tracking casualties in 2005. The previous record of 36 killings was set last year — a number that was surpassed in September of this year. 

These organizations warn Israeli authorities aren't abiding by international protocols to protect children when carrying out military operations, and they say lethal force is often a disproportionate response to the actual threat posed by children in most cases. 

It's "very rare" for a member of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to face consequences for the killing of Palestinian civilians, said Ori Givati, advocacy director at Breaking the Silence, an organization started by IDF veterans who are against Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

The IDF did not respond to questions submitted by CBC News for this article in time for publication. An offer by the IDF to speak with an Israeli official, on background, was not followed up on after multiple emails.

Givati, a former combat soldier, said the IDF always finds a way to justify its actions as an "operational error" or "not intentional," adding the lack of any real consequences for the killings or abuse of Palestinians has created a "permissive" atmosphere to use lethal force against civilians — including children. 

Among the children killed in the West Bank this year were two boys — eight-year-old Adam Samer Al-Ghoul and 15-year-old Basil Suleiman Abu Al-Wafa — who were shot to death during an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp last month. 

Videos circulating on social media appeared to show Al-Ghoul and Al-Wafa being shot, in separate incidents. 

In a statement to CBC News at the time, the IDF didn't acknowledge any involvement in the killings of the two boys but said its soldiers were carrying out "counterterrorist activity" and that "explosive devices were hurled at the forces who responded with fire toward the terrorists and hit them."

Because the West Bank is under occupation and is not in a "wartime situation," Israel can't justify killing civilians "by claiming it's in the name of counterterrorism," said Bill Van Esveld, an associate director for children's rights at Human Rights Watch (HRW). 

In a report released in August, HRW examined the killings of Palestinian teenagers by Israeli forces in the West Bank between November 2022 and March 2023. The victims in three incidents detailed in the report involved groups of children throwing rocks and/or Molotov cocktails from a distance at armoured military vehicles.

According to Van Esveld, that is not a significant enough threat to warrant soldiers "spraying the whole area with automatic gunfire," which is what witnesses allege happened in the incidents HRW documented.