UN inquiry finds Israeli occupation inflicts ‘continuous traumatic stress’ on Palestinian children

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has released a report titled “The essence of childhood has been destroyed”, documenting the systemic impact of the conflict on Palestinian children since October 2023. The commission found that Israeli forces have killed at least 20,179 Palestinian children and wounded more than 44,000, with the majority of casualties occurring in Gaza. The report characterises the deliberate targeting of children in Gaza as constituting part of the genocide in the Palestinian territory.

Data presented in the inquiry highlights a significant escalation in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli military raids increased by 37 per cent in the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. This surge resulted in approximately 7,500 raids, averaging 27 per day. The commission noted a corresponding rise in settler violence against children, including the killing of a two-year-old girl in January 2025, and documented a pattern of mass arrests, torture, and attacks on educational and medical facilities.

The report describes a state of “continuous traumatic stress” among Palestinian children, distinguishing it from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the absence of a single recoverable event. Instead, the harm stems from a constant state of diffused, ambient terror caused by the expectation of future raids. Psychologist Lemis Farraj, who works in the Dheisheh refugee camp, noted that children are becoming desensitised to fear, with some stating they are “used to it and I stop being afraid” despite the violence.

Personal accounts from children in the Dheisheh refugee camp illustrate the disruption of daily life. Fourteen-year-old Yanal described a football match interrupted by soldiers, while 12-year-old Diyar recalled a piano lesson halted by tear gas and aggression. Five-year-old Khour Hammad recounted waking to find soldiers in her home after her parents were arrested in July 2023 and March 2024. These experiences reflect a broader pattern where children are held in detention without lawyers or notification to their parents, a separation the commission says can amount to enforced disappearance.

Structural impacts on childhood are further evidenced by the targeting of schools, with 85 institutions in the West Bank under demolition or stop-work orders. The commission argued that Israel has created conditions of domination and oppression that compound intergenerational trauma from the Nakba. With roughly one in four Palestinians in the West Bank and 70 per cent in Gaza classified as refugees, the report concludes that dispossession and military occupation form a long-term mechanism affecting the physical and mental health of the region’s youth.