On the day he died, Mohammad al-Halaq had been jubilant about a new school bag he had been given in class, printed with the logo of the UN child protection and advocacy agency, Unicef.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was extremely happy. It was something out of the ordinary for him to be given a bag,\u201d recalled his mother, Aliyah. \u201cHe came knocking on the door to tell me had this new bag to put pencils and pens in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nine-year-old ran home then raced back to school to ask, unsuccessfully, if he could get another bag for his brother. After lunch, he went outdoors to try to catch birds in a net he had rigged up. He caught one and showed it off to his friends. Full of energy, he then wanted to go to his grandparents\u2019 house nearby.<\/p>\n
The al-Halaq family live in ar-Rihiya, in the hills south of Hebron, which have become notorious for Israeli settler violence abetted by an increasingly politicised army<\/a>. So Aliyah was nervous about Mohammad going anywhere out of her sight, but she had to go to the shops and her son was determined, waving goodbye to her as he sprinted away. It was the last time she saw him alive.<\/p>\n Map of Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n Mohammad was shot in the pelvis by an Israeli soldier at about 4pm that day, 16 October last year. He had been playing football with other boys in a school playground when two army Jeeps drove up. The boys scattered in all directions. By one account, a couple of the older teens threw stones towards the Jeeps, while others shouted at the soldiers once they had reached what they thought was a safe distance.<\/p>\n A video shows a soldier get out of the Jeep and aim his rifle towards the hilltop where some of the boys were watching. Shots were fired and Mohammad took a couple of steps before collapsing. Others tried to reach the bleeding boy but were held back by more shots and teargas fired by the soldiers below.<\/p>\n Aliyah was at the shops when the call came. It was her uncle calling her father, but she had an instinct and grabbed her father\u2019s mobile.<\/p>\n \u201cI asked him directly: \u2018Is it my son Muhammad? Please tell me the truth. Is it my son?\u2019 And he hung up when he realised it was me,\u201d Aliyah said.<\/p>\n Muhammad died in hospital, one of 235 Palestinian children and teenagers killed by Israeli forces on the West Bank<\/a> \u2013 plus another five killed by settlers themselves \u2013 since 7 October 2023. That date marked the start of the Gaza war, triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel which killed about 1,200 Israelis (of which about 800 were civilians and 38 were children).<\/p>\n The reprisals were not just against Gaza, where more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed (21,000 of them children), but also in the West Bank, where military rules of engagements have been loosened and impunity is the norm<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe widespread and unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of Israel\u2019s broader policy that allows the killing of Palestinians without accountability,\u201d said Yuli Novak, the executive director of the human rights group B\u2019Tselem, which published a report on Monday titled Unshielded Childhood<\/a>. It focuses on 54 Palestinian children and teenagers killed by Israeli forces in 2025 alone.<\/p>\n \u201cThe system does not merely back the shooters \u2013 it effectively gives them a licence to kill,\u201d Novak said, pointing to recent remarks by Maj Gen Avi Bluth, the head of the army\u2019s central command, deployed in the West Bank, claiming \u201cwe are killing like we haven\u2019t killed since 1967\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bluth also claimed that \u201c96% of those killed were involved in terrorism\u201d, but B\u2019Tselem called that a \u201cblatant lie\u201d. Its analysis of the minors killed in 2025 found no evidence that any of them posed any threat, or were members of any militant group.<\/p>\n A bar graph showing the ages of children killed in the West Bank<\/a><\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the army did not \u201cintentionally target uninvolved civilians\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery allegation of harm to uninvolved individuals is examined and investigated,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThe IDF and Israel\u2019s security forces will continue to operate to thwart terrorism and protect the citizens of Israel, while remaining committed to Israeli and international law and taking measures to mitigate harm to civilians whenever possible.\u201d<\/p>\n According to data from another human rights organisation, Yesh Din, no Israeli has been indicted for the killing of a Palestinian since October 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a separate report last week, a UN independent international commission of inquiry found that: \u201cIsraeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes<\/a> in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n