The Impact of the Conflict on Children

At least 2,172 Palestinian children and 134 Israeli children have been killed by someone from the other side since 2000.

“The majority of these [Palestinian] children were killed and injured while going about normal daily activities, such as going to school, playing, shopping, or simply being in their homes. Sixty-four percent of children killed during the first six months of 2003 died as a result of Israeli air and ground attacks, or from indiscriminate fire from Israeli soldiers.”

– Catherine Cook
Data Sources: Remember These Children, a coalition of groups calling for an end to the killing of children and a fair resolution of the conflict.
We refer to B’Tselem (last updated January 31, 2018) and IMEMC as our current sources for children’s deaths since Remember These Children has not been updated since July 21, 2014.
To see names, photos and more information for the Israeli and Palestinian children who have been killed, please visit our website Israel-Palestine Timeline.
Remember These Children’s list of victims does not yet mention all of the 527 children killed by Israel in during its 2014 assault on Gaza in the summer.)
It also appears that the site has not documented a number of the Palestinian children killed during Israel’s Dec 27, 2008 – Jan 18, 2009 assault on Gaza. They report only 269 of the Palestinian children killed during that time (and an additional 9 who later died from wounds inflicted during that time period). B’Tselem has documented that Israel killed 318 Palestinian children in Gaza during this time. We do not doubt the validity of this higher number as they are extremely careful in their documentation.
Note: A child is a person aged 17 or younger.

Protect Palestinian Children

The State of Israel uses American aid money to detain and prosecute approximately 700 Palestinian children every year. This is no way to treat a child – and we are complicit in this practice. We need to put a stop to this.

Israelis and Palestinians Killed in the Current Violence

At least 10,002 Palestinians and 1,270 Israelis have been killed by someone from the other side since 2000.

American news reports repeatedly describe Israeli military attacks against the Palestinian population as “retaliation.” However, when one looks into the chronology of death in this conflict, the reality turns out to be quite different.

Source: B’Tselem, The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. (Visit their statistics page, last updated January 31, 2018.) We refer to IMEMC and other Palestinian news outlets for deaths that have not yet been recorded by B’Tselem.
To see names, photos and more information for the Israeli and Palestinian victims of this conflict, please visit our new website Israel-Palestine Timeline.
See also the UN OCHA report that records the 2,220 victims (67% of them civilians) of Israel’s summer 2014 massacre in Gaza. 71 Israelis were killed during the same period (9% of them civilians).
The numbers in this chart include civilians and combatants killed by members of the opposing nationality (and therefore, do not include Palestinians killed by an explosive device that they set or was on their person, Israelis killed in ‘friendly fire’ incidents, etc.). The numbers also do not include the sizable number of Palestinians who died as a result of inability to reach medical care due to Israeli road closures, curfews, the Israeli closure of border crossing from Gaza, etc.
The figure for Palestinian deaths is extremely conservative, since it is difficult for B’Tselem to report on deaths in the Palestinian territories. The Palestine Red Crescent Society, internationally respected for its statistical rigor, reports significantly higher numbers of Palestinian deaths. We do not doubt the reliability of their data, and only use B’Tselem’s more conservative numbers because they collect data on both populations.
In the past we used the statistics provided by Israel’s military for the number of Israelis killed, but they have not updated their statistics page since early in 2006. In addition, there is reason to believe that their numbers may have been somewhat inflated.

* The Palestinian people do not have a military, so the usual classification of civilian is not being used. Instead B’Tselem provides data on the number of Palestinians who did not participate in hostilities, a significantly more stringent qualification than the one used to identify Israeli civilians. We do not know how many of the Israelis listed as civilians participated in the hostilities. Many settlers who illegally have taken over parts of the West Bank (and used to live in parts of the Gaza Strip) are heavily armed and there have been numerous reports of their brutal attacks on their Palestinian neighbors.

Causes of Deaths of Israeli Soldiers
2005

Source: Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv, Oct. 10, 2005, p. 6.
Note: The paper also reported that since 1992, 459 Israeli soldiers have committed suicide.

Air attacks: Gazan rockets and Israeli airstrikes

Approximately 30 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets
while about 5,851 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Source: B’Tselem Statistics

The media frequently report that “thousands of rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza.” This is correct.
Media reports, however, contain little additional information. Here we will examine when the rockets began, how many Israelis they have killed, and the nature of the rockets.
Gazan rockets have killed a total of 30 Israelis (listed below). During the same period, Israeli air strikes have killed more than 5,800 Gazans.
According to the Israeli military, the first rocket by Gazan resistance groups was fired on April 16, 2001. This came after Israeli forces had shelled and invaded Gaza (photos here), killing 570+ Palestinians in the previous six months.

The Tufah area of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, February 2001. The area had been shelled by Israeli forces. Not a single rocket had yet been fired from Gaza. (Photo by Alison Weir)

A Palestinian boy who had been shot by Israeli forces, Gaza Strip, February 2001. Not a single rocket had yet been fired from Gaza. Israeli forces had killed dozens of Palestinian children in the previous four months, many of them through gunfire to the head; no Israeli children had been killed. (Photo by Alison Weir)

According to Global Security, the production of rockets began in September 2001.
in 2001 Palestinian groups fired a total of 4 rockets. (according to the Jewish Policy Center and Jewish Virtual Library.
The first rocket to land in Israel was in 2002. (Jewish Policy Center)
[sources]

Israelis killed by Palestinian rockets

Palestinian airstrike weaponry
and Israeli airstrike weaponry

Like the death toll, the firepower on the two sides of this conflict is vastly uneven. Here, we’ll examine some of the weaponry used by each side. First we will look at Palestinian weapons and below that Israeli weapons.

Palestinian weaponry

Palestine has no aircraft of any kind, therefore its “airstrikes” actually consist of various types of land-based weapons:

Qassam Rockets

The Qassam series of home made rockets are designed and manufactured in the Gaza Strip.
According to Wikipedia:

The rocket consists of a steel cylinder, containing a rectangular block of the propellant. A steel plate which forms and supports the nozzles is then spot-welded to the base of the cylinder. The warhead consists of a simple metal shell surrounding the explosives, and is triggered by a fuse constructed using a simple firearm cartridge, a spring and a nail.

Simple metal A-frames used to launch Qassam rockets (Wikimedia Commons)

This rudimentary design is propelled by a mixture of sugar and amonium nitrate (common fertilizer), launched from a simple metal frame, and has no guidance system, making it highly inaccurate.

BM-21 Grad

Another unguided rocket used in Palestine is the BM-21 Grad. Produced in China and Iran, this Soviet designed weapon has a farther range than the Qassam and is often fired from the back of a truck.

Member of Al-Quds Brigade carrying Grad missile (PalToday)

9M133 Kornet

The most sophisticated weapon Hamas has used against their Israeli occupiers is the Russian made Kornet laser guided anti-tank missile. The number of these in Hamas’s possesion is unknown but to date they are only responsible for two Israeli deaths.

A Russian soldier fires a Kornet missile, 2017 (Wikimedia Commons)

Other rockets

According to the Israeli Military, Hamas has used various other types of missiles including the home made M-75 and Al Quds rockets as well as the Chinese M-302 and the Iranian Fajr-5. Although some of these weapons reportedly have longer ranges and larger warheads than the BM-21 Grad, there has not been a single incidence where one of these rockets fired from the occupied territories has caused an Israeli death.

Mortars

Hamas rebels fire a mortar shell in Gaza (Reuters)

Aside from self propelled rockets, Palestinian rebels have fired morters at Israeli military personnel. Mortars can be easily carried by one person and consist of an explosive shell launched from a short metal tube. According to B’Tselem, Palestinian mortars have killed 20 Israelis including 13 soldiers. See the table below for details.

Balloons & Kites

Masked Palestinians prepare to attach a gas canister to a bunch of balloons on Feb. 10 before releasing them along the Israel-Gaza border fence. (Getty Images)

Beginning in 2018, some Gaza groups in desperation began using incendiary balloons and kites. As of March 26, 2020 these have caused no deaths or injuries.
 

Israeli airstrikes

Israel often launches airstrikes on Gaza that destroy residential neighborhoods, hospitals, churches, mosques, day care centers, historical sites, and more. Thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children have lost their lives in these attacks.
While Palestinian rebels attempt to retaliate against these attacks by launching primitive, home made rockets, the Israeli military is firing sophisticated, laser guided bombs and missiles from US made fighter jets and attack helicopters.

Fighter jets from the IAF’s second F-35 squadron, the Lions of the South, fly over southern Israel (Times of Israel)

Modified Israeli F-15Ds known as F-15 Baz (Breaking Defense)

Israeli F-16I “Sufa” in flight (Wikimedia Commons)

Israeli Air Force Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter, June 8, 2012 (Ofer Zidon/Flash90)

Below are just a few of the many types of bombs and missiles used by Israeli forces against their much more poorly equipped neighbors.

AGM-114 Hellfire self guided air-to-surface missile developed by Lockhead Martine (Israeli Firepower Ltd.)

Israeli manufacterer Rafael Systems’ Gil 2 antitank missile (Rafael Systems)

Israeli F-16 with BLU-109 forged steel point tip, and a BLU109 JDAM, 2000lb bunker buster penetration bomb (Wikimedia Commons)

Designed by Rockwell International, the GBU 15 (Guided Bomb Unit) is an unpowered, glide weapon used to destroy high-value enemy targets. (Wikimedia Commons)

US designed GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided bomb (Wikimedia Commons)

The GBU-28 is a 5,000-pound (2,268 kg) laser-guided “bunker busting” bomb manufactured by Raytheon(Wikimedia Commons)

In addition to these, Israel also employs a number of unmanned aerial drones. Among these are what are known as “loitering munitions”, drones which circle in a given vicinity for some time until they aquire a target and attack.

The IAI Harpy is an expendable, unmanned autonomous aircraft produced by Israel Aerospace Industries. It is designed to attack radar systems and carries a high explosive warhead. (The Drive/IAI)

Iron Dome

An anti-rocket defense system was put in place in Israel in April 2011. A collaboration between Israel’s Raphael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, and Raytheon, it’s purpose is to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells before they can reach populated areas of Israel.

Iron Dome missile test (Israeli Defense Ministry)

The United States initially contributed $1.3 billion to the project, and has since given several hundred million more. Despite this, after purchasing two Iron Dome batteries from Raphael for use at home, US Army officials requested the source code and were denied.
While Israel touts the project as an ironclad success, others raise questions about its effectiveness.

Israelis killed by Palestinian mortars

 
For a list of deaths from all types of weaponry, see our Israel Palestine Timeline website.
This page is a work in progress. We will continue to add more information as time permits.

Last updated: 04/25/2020