Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank at the highest rate since Israel occupied the territory in 1967, according to a new report by Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem. In its report published on Monday, B'Tselem said that almost a quarter of the 1,086 Palestinians killed in the West Bank between 7 October 2023 and 28 June 2026 were children and teenagers.
This is the highest rate of child fatalities in the West Bank since it fell under Israeli occupation almost 60 years ago, it said.
The report also documented the cases of 54 children and teenagers killed by Israeli forces in 2025.
B'Tselem said it was not aware of a single indictment filed against soldiers or settlers for killing Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023.
The report's publication coincided with news that another child had been killed in the occupied territory. The Palestinian health ministry said Monday that Israeli forces had shot a 15-year-old boy in the head during a raid in Al-Bireh.
"The widespread, unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of a broader Israeli policy that enables the killing of Palestinians with virtually no accountability," B'Tselem executive director Yuli Novak said.
This comes several weeks after the Israeli commander in charge of the West Bank was reported in the Israeli press to have boasted about the high numbers of Palestinian deaths.
"We're killing like we haven't since 1967", Avi Bluth was quoted as saying in private remarks by Haaretz .
Bluth, himself a settler, also lauded his soldiers for killing 1,500 "terrorists" since October 2023, referring to Palestinians.
Israel routinely defines Palestinians killed by Israeli forces as "terrorists", including civilians who posed no danger at the time they were killed.
"When the military commander of the area boasts that Israel is killing Palestinians ‘like we haven't killed since 1967,’ he is confirming exactly that: the system does not merely back those who pull the trigger – it effectively grants them a license to kill," Novak said.
The sharp rise in child deaths in the West Bank predates October 2023. The number of fatalities more than doubled to 34 in 2022 after the military began allowing soldiers to use live ammunition against people throwing stones, who Israel also describes as "terrorists".
But since October 2023, the rate of fatalities reached record highs as Israel's far-right government had escalated its attacks across the territory.
Israeli forces killed 235 Palestinian children in the West Bank in the two years and eight months to 28 June 2026. Five others were killed by settler militias.
Of the 54 cases last year, B'Tselem said 13 had been shot dead for throwing stones. At least 21 of those killed had not been involved in any clashes with Israeli forces.
B'Tselem said that Israeli forces prevented medical teams or residents from reaching wounded children in almost one-quarter cases.
As of 6 June, authorities were continuing to block the release of 18 of the 54 bodies, a long-standing Israeli policy that legal experts say is a violation of international law.
B'Tselem said Israeli forces' actions in the West Bank cannot be separated from the mass killing of Palestinian children in Gaza, where more than 21,000 have died during Israel's genocidal assault.