What percentage of palestinian victims are children?
Executive summary
Using available reporting, the clearest published figure comes from the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s casualty listings as analyzed in peer-reviewed and NGO reports: children under 15 accounted for roughly one quarter of confirmed Palestinian deaths in Gaza in mid-2025 — about 14,824 of 60,199, or ~24.6% — while other authoritative tallies and analyses place the child share of Palestinian victims in a broader 20–30% band depending on definitions and geographic scope (Gaza vs West Bank) [1] [2] [3].
1. What the most direct count shows: MoH figures and peer review
A peer-reviewed analysis and related reporting that relied on Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) figures noted that, as of July 2025, the MoH had reported 60,199 total deaths in Gaza including 14,824 children under 15 and 4,744 children under five, which converts directly to children under 15 representing about 24.6% of that confirmed toll [1].
2. Independent studies and broader demographic groupings
Independent studies complicate a single-number answer by grouping women, children and elderly together; for example, a Lancet analysis estimated tens of thousands of traumatic deaths and reported that 59.1% of those deaths were women, children and the elderly combined, which does not isolate children specifically but signals a high civilian and vulnerable-population burden [2].
3. Other authoritative indicators: UN agencies and OHCHR
UN reporting for the West Bank has repeatedly signaled that children comprise roughly one in five of Palestinian victims in that territory since October 2023 — consistent with UN OHCHR and UNRWA summaries that list child deaths in the West Bank at roughly 20–22% of counted fatalities in that theater — underscoring that the child share can vary by location and period [4] [3].
4. NGO estimates and differing definitions raise divergent totals
Humanitarian organizations report higher absolute child tolls and occasionally different percentages: Save the Children, for example, reported that more than 20,000 children had been killed over 23 months of war (a claim that implies a much higher child share if compared to some total-death estimates), and Save the Children also highlighted that roughly 30% of identified child deaths in one dataset were under five years old — demonstrating that differing methodologies, cut-off ages (under 15 vs under 18) and sampling frames drive substantial variation between sources [5] [6].
5. Why estimates differ: methodology, geography, and the fog of conflict
Discrepancies stem from definitional choices (which age bracket defines “child”), incomplete identification, capture–recapture undercount adjustments, collapsing reporting systems amid active hostilities, and whether figures cover Gaza only or include the West Bank; several academic and health-sector sources explicitly warn of undercounts because bodies remain under rubble, registration systems broke down, and verification is uneven — meaning single-point percentages must be read as provisional and context-dependent [1] [2].
6. Bottom line and a reasoned range
Putting the best-verified public tallies together: using MoH-confirmed Gaza figures to mid‑2025 gives ~24–25% children (under 15) of Palestinian fatalities in Gaza [1]; UN/UNRWA/OHCHR reporting from the West Bank indicates roughly 20–22% children in that theater [3] [4]; NGO claims that cite much larger child totals point to higher possible shares if broader or different datasets are used [5] [6]. Given these validated sources and their caveats, a defensible summary is that children constitute roughly one in five to one in four Palestinian victims in the documented counts available to mid‑2025, with uncertainty upward or downward depending on definition, geography and undercount correction [1] [3] [2].