How many children have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023 according to UN and human rights groups?
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Executive summary
UN agencies and human-rights groups report that child casualties in Gaza since 7 October 2023 run into the tens of thousands when combining killed and injured: UNICEF said “more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured since October 2023” (child deaths plus injuries), while UN and OCHA-linked tallies citing the Gaza Ministry of Health list figures of at least 13,319 children killed as part of broader fatality breakdowns reported by OCHA and UN documents as of late 2024 [1] [2]. Verification and attribution remain contested and figures have been repeatedly revised as access and methodologies evolve [3] [2].
1. What the UN and UNICEF have reported — the headline numbers
UNICEF’s rolling public statements frame the catastrophe in two linked metrics: deaths and injuries. In a May 2025 briefing UNICEF said “more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured since October 2023,” explicitly combining fatalities and injuries into that total [1]. UN reporting cited in late 2023 and through 2024 emphasised thousands of civilian deaths overall in Gaza and multiple UN briefings put the share of women and children among those killed at very high proportions; one UN Security Council briefing cited that 67% of more than 14,000 killed were women and children [4] [5].
2. How the Gaza Ministry of Health (via OCHA/UN reports) breaks down child fatalities
UN agencies relying on the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) have published breakdowns that list children among the fatalities. OCHA summaries that quote the MoH showed, for example, about 13,319 children included in a reported breakdown of Gaza fatalities as of 30 December 2024, and later situation reports continued to cite MoH totals that pushed the overall Gaza death toll higher — numbers that include the child component [2] [6]. UNRWA and OCHA reports also note that casualty figures “are continuously under review” as previously inaccessible areas are verified [3].
3. Differences in reporting methods and why numbers diverge
Different organisations use different definitions (who counts as a child), data sources (Gaz a MoH, field verification, hospital records, satellite and witness reporting), and cut‑off dates. UNICEF’s “killed or injured” aggregate (50,000+) mixes two types of harm and is not a pure death toll [1]. OCHA/UN summaries that rely on the MoH provide a death‑only breakdown that has been updated over time — thus separate figures can appear to conflict when they are in fact measuring different things or reflect different verification stages [2] [3].
4. Independent NGOs and early pandemic‑style surges in reporting
Relief agencies and NGOs like Save the Children highlighted early rapid increases in reported child deaths: in late October 2023 Save the Children cited more than 3,195 child deaths in Gaza during the first weeks, relying on health ministry tallies at that moment and warning of under‑verification because of limited access [7]. UNICEF’s October and November 2023 statements tracked swiftly rising child fatality estimates in the first fortnight and month of the crisis [8] [9].
5. What the UN Secretary‑General and UN reports say about verification and attribution
The UN Secretary‑General’s reports on children and armed conflict documented a very large number of child deaths in late 2023 and noted an ongoing process of attribution for the verified killing of Palestinian children (e.g., a verification process reported for 2,051 Palestinian children killed between 7 October and 31 December 2023) — indicating that casualty tallies are subject to further investigation and may be revised [10]. UN briefings stress that figures are provisional and under continuous review [3].
6. What is not fully settled in available reporting
Available sources do not mention a single, universally agreed final death toll for children that covers the entire period from 7 October 2023 to the present; instead, sources give overlapping but different metrics — “killed or injured” aggregates, MoH death breakdowns, and NGO snapshots at different dates [1] [2] [7]. The precise attribution of individual deaths (which actor caused them) is still being processed in UN verification work [10].
7. Takeaway — numbers show scale and uncertainty
The consistent throughline across UN agencies and humanitarian groups is that the crisis has produced catastrophic child suffering: tens of thousands of children have been killed or injured according to UNICEF [1], and MoH‑based breakdowns quoted by UN bodies documented thousands of children among Gaza fatalities by late 2024 [2]. At the same time, the figures must be read with their methodological qualifiers: different tallies measure different things and UN reporting explicitly warns that casualty figures are continuously under review [3] [10].
Limitations: this summary relies solely on the supplied UN, UNICEF, UNRWA and NGO excerpts; more recent or differently sourced tallies are not included here because they were not provided in the materials above [1] [3] [2].