May 24, 2025

IDF Deliberately Targeting Children in Gaza, US Doctors Allege

American physicians reported treating children younger than 12 “every single day” for gunshots to the head by Israeli forces.

Two kneeling women in hijab comfort a young boy and girl who are crying.

Palestinians in Gaza mourn for relatives killed in Israeli attacks at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza, May 21, 2025.Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty

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When Dr. Mimi Syed returned from her first volunteer trip to Gaza in the summer of 2024, she started flipping through her notes—and came to a shocking conclusion. In one month, the ER physician had treated at least 18 children with gunshots to the head or chest. And that’s only the patients she had time to make a note of. 

“They were children under the age of 12,” she says. “That’s something I saw every single day, multiple times a day, for the whole four weeks that I was there.”

Syed’s not the only one. Other physicians who have worked in Gaza report seeing similar cases on a regular basis, suggesting a disturbing pattern. The doctors allege that members of the Israeli military may be deliberately targeting children. 

This week’s Reveal, in partnership with Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines, follows Dr. Syed from the Gaza Strip to the halls of Congress and the United Nations, as she joins a movement of doctors appealing to US and international policymakers to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

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In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

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