Israeli forces have killed hundreds of children in the West Bank since January 2023 [Getty]
Two Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces during separate raids in the occupied West Bank on Friday amid a continued Israeli assault on the territory.
Twelve-year-old Ayman Nasser al-Haymouny was killed in the al-Kasara area south of Hebron, while 13-year-old Rimas al-Amouri was killed in the Jabriyat area of Jenin during separate raids, according to Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP).
DCIP said that Haymouny was shot in the back by an Israeli soldier near the home of a family member during an incursion and was pronounced dead at the Ali Al-Muhtaseb Hospital.
Ammouri was also shot in the back after Israeli soldiers fired five bullets into the courtyard of her family home. Israeli soldiers continued to fire into the courtyard as her family attempted to retrieve her. She was pronounced dead at the Jenin Government Hospital.
The family of Amouri held the funeral on Saturday, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA, which said that she has been buried in the cemetery of Jenin refugee camp.
Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the accountability program director at DCIP, said that “Israeli forces have nothing but contempt for Palestinian children’s lives and systemic impunity means they will face no consequences.”
“It is outrageous that world leaders have allowed Israel to kill Palestinian children with such cruelty with no accountability,” he added.
On Friday also, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza, visited Tulkarem in the West Bank.
Accompanied by soldiers, he stormed a Palestinian family home, and boasted of “flattening entire streets” while ordering the Israeli army to step up operations there, following the bombing of buses in Tel Aviv.
DCIP has recording the killing of 16 children in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2025, including eight from drone strikes.
Since January 2023, a total of 224 children have been killed in the occupied West Bank. The number accounts for half of child fatalities since 2005, according to UN records.
On Friday, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said it had to suspend educational activities alongside the Teacher Creativity Centre in Jenin following Israel’s assault on the city that began in January.
This has left 200 children without psychosocial support in the devastated city.
The IRC said the inability to conduct educational activities was part of what it termed a “wider education crisis affecting Palestinian children across the West Bank and Gaza”, with 658,000 children without formal education in Gaza and 100 school across the West Bank being disrupted since the beginning of the year.
General Director of TCC Refat Sabbah said that the suspension means “200 children have now lost access to activities that could have helped them heal from the trauma of the violence they’ve experienced.”
“For children in crisis, education is more than just learning – it is a lifeline to stability, hope, and recovery as well as providing much needed safe spaces. The longer these disruptions continue, the deeper the scars left on an entire generation,” Sabbah added.
Some 806,000 students in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem have had their access to education restricted in 2024.
On Saturday, Israeli forces also carried out raids in the town of Yasid, north of Nablus, as well as continuing attacks on Tulkarem and its adjacent Nour Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps, according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency. WAFA also reported that Israeli military reinforcements arrived to Jenin.
