New report: Deadliest time for Palestinians in West Bank since 1967

Source: B'Tselem

"Aysar ran towards us in a panic and said: 'The Jews shot Ayman.' I saw three soldiers surrounding Ayman, who was lying on the ground, shining their flashlights on him. He was close to the gate.

I went over to him and shouted at the soldiers: 'What have you done to my son?' Ayman said to me in a faint voice: 'Mom, the soldiers shot me.' I was in shock and started shouting at the soldiers: 'Which one of you shot my son?' while one of my brothers picked Ayman up and took him to the car."

This is what Anwaar, 12-year-old Ayman al-Haymuni's mother, said in a testimony given to B'Tselem's field researcher.

B'Tselem is an Israeli nonprofit organization based in Jerusalem that documents human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and advocates for a human rights culture in Israel.

In February 2025, when Ayman and his 10-year-old brother Aysar went from their grandfather's home to their uncle's home nearby, Ayman was fatally shot by soldiers who were carrying out a raid in a neighbourhood in Hebron.

Ayman is one of 54 Palestinian children and teenagers killed by Israeli forces in 2025 in the West Bank. B'Tselem's new report: Unshielded Childhood, tells the victims' stories and the circumstances that led to the death of each of the 54 children and teens. It paints a clear picture of an Israeli policy that enables and backs the killing of minors, without anyone being held to account.

From 7 October 2023 until 5 July 2026, Israel killed 1,088 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 242 children and teenagers. Nearly one in four Palestinians killed by Israel in the West Bank during this time was a minor. This is the largest number of Palestinian children and teens killed by Israel in the West Bank since the occupation began in 1967.

Nevertheless, B'Tselem is not aware of a single indictment filed for the killing of Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023, even when the victims were children and teenagers.

Read the report: Unshielded Childhood