Description
The ʿAsʿus family was about to sit down for dinner when they heard gunfire from the street. Everyone rushed to take cover. Two-year-old Layla was sitting in her mother’s lap when a bullet struck her in the head. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The shooters were Israeli soldiers who had were carrying out a raid in a neighboring home in the village of Muthallath a-Shuhada in Jenin District, on 25 January 2025.
Layla is one of 54 children and teens killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank in 2025. Our new report, Unshielded Childhood, released this week,tells their stories and the circumstances that led to each of their deaths.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed 241 children and teenagers in the West Bank, the highest number of Palestinian minors killed there since the territory was occupied in 1967. This is the result of an Israeli policy that enables and backs the killing of Palestinians, without anyone being held to account.
Read our latest report, "Unshielded Childhood": https://www.btselem.org/video/20260629_unshielded_childhood_palestinian_children_and_teenagers_killed_by_israel_in_the_west_bank_in_2025?fbclid=IwY2xjawS0SnNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEecw9KezPfxn4IxD7oqv_5zN25q6bQDeFcBVjy6f5Sym2NOhUDe8x57T1lh2M_aem_2W0pbGByvVTBcwxndNn0iQ&utm_content=link_in_bio&utm_medium=social&utm_source=ig