What are the documented counts and ages of child victims from October 7, 2023, according to Israeli official records?

1. What Israeli official sources have published on ages and counts

Israel’s social security agency, Bituah Leumi, has been cited by reporters as a primary source for identities and ages of civilian victims associated with the October 7 events, and news outlets used its data to produce more granular age information than earlier tallies ^{[2] [5]}. The Israel National Council for the Child published a report drawing on official state statistics that stated Israel has recognized 19,407 children as victims of terrorism since October 7, and that 7,257 of those children are under six years old — a figure presented as derived from official data rather than independent counts ^[1].

2. How those official-derived counts differ from immediate-event casualty claims

Contemporary press coverage and later investigations drew a distinction between children killed in the Oct. 7 incursions themselves and children later classified as victims of terrorism or otherwise affected; fact-checkers noted that only “at least 29 children” were identified by international authorities as having died in the Oct. 7 attack itself, a smaller number than some circulating claims ^[3]. Media summaries using Bituah Leumi data sought to map ages among the wider set of victims linked to the day and subsequent operations, but they do not uniformly equate the larger “victim of terrorism” label with deaths occurring solely on Oct. 7 ^{[4] [2]}.

3. Specific age breakdowns reported and their provenance

The most specific age breakdowns available in the cited reporting come from the Israel National Council for the Child’s use of state statistics — the headline numbers being 19,407 children recognized as victims and 7,257 under six years old ^[1] — and from aggregated media summaries that referenced Bituah Leumi as the repository of identities and ages ^{[2] [5]}. The Times of Israel produced periodic compilations noting, for example, smaller subgroups (such as “14 kids under 10” in a broader victims breakdown), but those media tallies mix soldiers, civilians and different victim categories and underscore the piecemeal nature of publicly released age data ^[4].

4. Limits, disputes and alternative data points

Official Israeli data sources and organizations relying on them provide clearer individual-level age records than many external tallies, yet they do not always publish a single, definitive age-by-age death list for Oct. 7 alone; this has allowed divergent figures and interpretations to circulate, and independent fact-checkers flagged exaggerated online claims about child deaths in the immediate attack ^{[2] [3]}. Reporting also highlights that Bituah Leumi’s data do not necessarily distinguish between those killed by Hamas during the assault and civilians who died subsequently in related military operations to regain territory, a distinction that affects interpretation of any age-based death counts ^[2].

5. Bottom line from Israeli official records and what cannot be concluded

From the cited Israeli-official-derived sources, the defensible, documented assertions are that Israel’s social-security records (Bituah Leumi) and state statistics were used to compile age information and that the Israel National Council for the Child — relying on official figures — identified 19,407 children as victims of terrorism since Oct. 7, 2023, with 7,257 under age six ^{[2] [1]}. What the provided sources do not allow with certainty is a single, incontrovertible, age-by-age death count exclusively for victims who were killed on Oct. 7 itself; external fact-checking and reporting indicate that the number of children conclusively identified as killed in the immediate Oct. 7 attacks is far smaller and subject to verification ^{[3] [4]}.