Ms. Rachel Hosts Press Briefing on Israel’s Targeting of Palestinian Children

On Friday, childhood educator and YouTube influencer Ms. Rachel hosted a press briefing on the impact of Israel’s genocide on Palestinian children, following the release of the UN Commission of Inquiry report on Palestinian children earlier this week.

The press briefing featured Chris Sidoti of the UN Commission of Inquiry; emergency physician Dr. Mahmooda “Mimi” Syed, who served at Gaza’s al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Hospital in 2024; and a child from a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. The briefing also featured videos of children in Gaza who have lost parents during the genocide, and clips of kids sharing their hopes for their education, which has been disrupted for nearly three years.

Sidoti of the UN Commission of Inquiry spoke about the report on the targeting of Palestinian children, which was released Tuesday. The Commission of Inquiry, he explained, found a pattern of Israeli forces “intentionally targeting children in Gaza” — not only through mass killing and bombing campaigns, but also through “the intentional targeting of individual children.”

Israel has killed tens of thousands of children in Gaza since the start of the genocide in October 2023.

Israeli soldiers have purposefully targeted children, the UN commission found, “not as part of a military operation,” but with soldiers “deliberately targeting” kids with precisely-aimed shots “to the head or to the upper part of the body,” Sidoti explained.

The UN report documented numerous instances of snipers and quadcopters targeting children, even babies, with shots to the head. These instances were often in broad daylight, and sometimes, the child or infant was the only target. They also received reports of 168 other children injured or killed by gunshots, with 73 of them shot in the head, and 70 of them shot by quadcopters.

The Commission interviewed medical practitioners at various hospitals in Gaza, “who reported a consistent pattern of receiving children with single gunshot wounds,” either by snipers or quadcopters, suggesting carefully-aimed shots deliberately targeting kids.

Quadcopters are small, remotely piloted drones; the operator can see the drone’s view in real time.

What’s more, hundreds of Palestinian children have been killed since the start of the so-called ceasefire in October. The “ceasefire is really not a ceasefire, it’s a reduced fire,” Sidoti said. Israeli forces have killed an average of five people in Gaza a day since the deal was implemented.

The report also details the worsening situation in the occupied West Bank, where almost 250 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel since October 2023.

Sidoti called on states to act, and not simply give statements or condemnations. “Many states have taken limited action, but they have been totally inadequate,” he said, calling for a ban on arms and military trade with the state of Israel, and a much higher level of aid facilitated into Gaza.

The amount of aid entering Gaza is less than a quarter of what Israel agreed to in the 2025 “ceasefire,” Sidoti said. Malnutrition is increasing, as are children’s deaths by malnutrition.

Emergency Physician Dr. Mimi Syed described what she witnessed in Gaza over a few months in 2024, including children in Gaza being deliberately shot in the head.

“We were forced to practice in conditions that by themselves were war crimes,” she said.

A much greater level of medical evacuation from Gaza is needed, she said.

Ms. Rachel – whose educational videos for young children have millions of views, and who has become an advocate for children’s rights in Palestine and immigrant jails in the U.S. – spoke of the over 58,000 children in Gaza who have lost one or both parents during the genocide.

While children in Gaza had a 99 percent literacy rate before the start of the genocide, they have now been unable to attend school for nearly three years, she added.

Sidoti urged global powers to hold Israeli soldiers accountable for their war crimes. “Any soldiers who have participated in any way” must be investigated for war crimes, he said – including the some 13,000 Americans who participated in the Israeli military throughout the genocide.

The UN Commission of Inquiry additionally examines Israel’s pattern of targeting infrastructure critical to children, including health care facilities, orphanages, and schools. It also found a pattern of torture and sexual violence used against Palestinian children in Israeli detention.