B'Tselem: Israel killing Palestinian children in West Bank at highest rate since 1967, IDF commander says 'killing like we haven't killed since 1967'

Summary

Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem published "Unshielded Childhood" on June 29, documenting that Israeli forces killed more than 240 Palestinian children and teenagers in the occupied West Bank between October 7, 2023 and June 28, 2026, with 54 killed in 2025 alone. The 2025 figure represents the highest annual rate since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank began in 1967. Nearly one in four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023 was a minor. B'Tselem attributes the toll to "a reckless open-fire policy, expanded to be even more permissive than in the past," and states that no soldiers have been indicted for any of the killings. West Bank commander Avi Bluth separately boasted that Israeli forces are "killing like we haven't killed since 1967," a quote the report treats as an admission rather than a rebuke.

The split

Middle East Eye, Arab News, and Middle East Monitor lead with the accountability vacuum and the systemic-policy framing, treating Bluth's quote as evidence of command-level endorsement. Israeli outlets have not prominently covered the report, and Israeli government spokespeople have not responded to the specific statistics. Western newswires (AP, Reuters) covered the data but without the Bluth quote. The Palestinian Authority wire WAFA leads with the raw count. The divergence is between frames: Arab and international outlets treat this as a structural policy finding; the Israeli government treats West Bank operations as counter-terror raids, a framing the report directly contests.

By the numbers

• 240+, Palestinian children and teenagers killed in the West Bank October 7, 2023, to June 28, 2026
• 54, killed in 2025 alone, the highest annual figure since 1967
• 1 in 4, proportion of all Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October 2023 who were minors
• 0, known indictments of Israeli soldiers for any of the killings since October 2023
• 1967, previous comparative benchmark: the year Israel captured the West Bank in the Six-Day War

Why it matters

The report adds a documented institutional record to what was previously reported as a series of individual incidents. By establishing a 1967 comparison and quoting the field commander's own language, B'Tselem has supplied advocates at the ICC and in European parliaments with a structured evidentiary base. The timing, released the same day Finance Minister Smotrich called for Gaza settlements, intensifies international attention on the direction of Israeli policy in the occupied territories at a moment when any Gaza ceasefire architecture depends on partial normalization with Arab states that are watching West Bank developments.

What to watch

• Whether the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor or UN Special Rapporteur responds formally to the report's evidentiary basis.
• Whether European governments that have recognized Palestinian statehood issue statements or condition arms transfers on the accountability findings.
• West Bank fatality data for July: whether the rate continues or whether public attention from the report affects operational tempo.
• Israeli government's formal response, if any, to the Bluth quote and the accountability statistics.