Three Palestinian citizens, including a woman and a child, were martyred in the early hours of Saturday morning, as a result of a series of raids carried out by Israeli occupation forces on various areas in the Gaza Strip. The shelling targeted a residential apartment on Thirtieth Street in Gaza City, in addition to attacks on the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Strip, resulting in varying injuries among civilians.
Medical sources reported that the shelling targeting the residential apartment in Gaza City led to the immediate martyrdom of the woman and child, while the injured were transferred to nearby hospitals for treatment. In the Mawasi area, which the occupation forces classify as 'safe zones,' another martyr fell and a number of citizens were injured, including four children, following a direct targeting of tents and displaced persons' gatherings.
In a related context, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) described the state of relative calm or the ceasefire announced since October 2025 as a 'deadly illusion' for children and youth in the Strip. The organization affirmed that ongoing military operations are claiming the lives of minors in places that were supposed to be safe havens for them, away from the machinery of war.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder pointed out that data documents the killing of 265 minors since the ceasefire announcement, explaining that more than 90% of these deaths resulted from direct Israeli attacks. He also noted that the rest of the victims fell due to the explosion of unexploded ordnance remnants scattered among the rubble of destroyed homes in various governorates.
Elder stressed that these children were not killed on the battlefronts or in areas of engagement, but were targeted inside their homes, in their schools, and while engaging in simple activities such as playing football or fishing. He explained that the occupation forces used 'quadcopter' drones to fire directly at civilians, leading to severe and complex injuries.
UN reports included tragic cases of child victims, among them an infant less than two years old who was martyred by occupation bullets, and a thirteen-year-old boy who was injured inside his tent. The organization also recorded a 15-year-old girl being shot in the chest by a weapon mounted on a military crane, and another child being injured in the face by a drone.
According to the latest official data, the death toll from the ongoing war of extermination since October 7, 2023, has risen to 73,018 martyrs and 173,273 injured. These figures reflect the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe experienced by the Strip amidst the continued systematic targeting of infrastructure and residential areas crowded with displaced persons.
Since the last ceasefire announcement on October 11, 2025, the total number of martyrs has reached approximately 1,007, in addition to more than 3,165 injured. Civil defense teams and citizens have also been able to recover the bodies of 784 martyrs from under the rubble of homes destroyed in previous periods, increasing the pace of grief and sorrow in the Palestinian street.
The UN official concluded his statements by demanding the necessity of stopping the 'normalization of the abnormal,' emphasizing that the continued killing of children on this scale during the truce period must raise widespread international concern. Elder criticized the absence of international political will to bring a real end to the suffering of children in Gaza, calling on institutions that claim to defend international law to act immediately.
The ceasefire announced in Gaza is a deadly illusion for children and youth, and we must stop normalizing the abnormal.
شارك برأيك
3 Martyrs in Gaza and UNICEF Describes Ceasefire as a 'Deadly Illusion' for Children