Children Among Highest Casualties Of Israeli Airstrikes In Return To Widespread Death And Destruction

GAZA, 18 MARCH 2025 - Israeli airstrikes across Gaza have reportedly killed at least 404 Palestinians, mostly children and women, and injured at least 562 more in a unilateral resumption of hostilities that has returned Palestinians across the Strip to an inescapable living nightmare, said Save the Children.

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, Khan Younis, Deir Al-Balah and Rafah governorates this morning wiped out entire families, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

Israeli authorities have ordered people in some neighbourhoods of North Gaza and Khan Younis to relocate to shelters elsewhere in Khan Younis and Gaza City - governorates already hit by airstrikes today. This comes after the Government of Israel reimposed a total siege on the entry of aid and commercial supplies on 2 March. Supplies of life-saving goods that entered Gaza during the initial six-week pause in hostilities are again rapidly dwindling.

Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s Regional Director, said:

"Children and families in Gaza have barely caught their breath and are now being plunged back into a horrifically familiar world of harm that they cannot escape.

"This latest slaughter was on starved, besieged, defenceless families. It follows more than a fortnight of total siege by the Government of Israel on entry of aid and goods, and repeated violations of the agreed pause in hostilities, international humanitarian law, and the Provisional Measures from the International Court of Justice demanding increased aid flows.

"These airstrikes come as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain displaced, their homes destroyed and uninhabitable, with tents all that stand between them and explosive weapons designed for wide reach. Children are the most vulnerable to explosive weapons. Their lighter bodies are thrown further by the blasts and their bones are softer and bend more easily, with higher risk of secondary injuries and long-term deformities and disabilities. Their small bodies have less blood to lose - a death sentence when emergency services can’t safely operate and reach them.

"Children who survive the onslaught will not be able to receive adequate medical care or even basic pain medication, following the Government of Israel’s restrictions on and denial of medical supplies and the fuel hospitals need to function. About 579 children have been medically evacuated since the start of February but more than 4,500 more children need to be. If the siege and airstrikes continue, that number will skyrocket.

"This cannot be what world powers allow children to return to. When children are slaughtered en masse, humanity’s moral and legal foundations crumble. We have seen it for ourselves: the only way to ensure children and families are protected as international law requires is through a ceasefire. This time, it must be definitive - the constant threat of war cannot be left hanging over their heads.

"Until then, even wars have laws, and those laws are clear. Civilians must be actively protected, with concrete steps taken to avoid and minimize civilian casualties. There is no military imperative that can justify atrocity crimes. And the international community must use all available means - exhaustively, not selectively - to ensure international law is upheld. Anything less is a global failure - not a mistake, not a regrettable dilemma, but a total dereliction of legal duty. Failure to act now risks the annihilation of children and their futures."

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