18 March 2025: The day 183 children in Gaza were massacred by Israel
Something that separates Ramadan from other times of the year is a change of routine.
That includes waking up for suhoor, a pre-dawn meal which Muslims eat in preparation for fasting.
Families, sometimes including children, rise together during the holy month to eat suhoor and perform Fajr dawn prayers.
On Tuesday, hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza were killed by Israeli bombs in those early hours of suhoor.
Some had been awake eating with their families. Others were asleep in makeshift displacement camps as food was prepared.
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Entire generations of families were wiped out together by Israel's devastating strikes.
'People were killed while they were sleeping. Women were killed whilst they were preparing meals'
- Rachel Cummings, Save the Children, Gaza
'People were killed while they were sleeping. Women were killed whilst they were preparing meals,' Save the Children's Rachael Cummings, who is currently in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, told Middle East Eye.
'There was no evacuation notice given,' Cummings said. 'This was a complete bombardment across the whole of Gaza.'
The timing was reportedly deliberate: Israel launched a surprise attack in the early hours because it believed 'Hamas members' would be present at suhoor meals.
Israeli officials continue to insist that Hamas commanders and infrastructure were the targets of the wave of attacks.
But of 436 massacred on Tuesday, over 180 were children.
'I do not spend too much time concerned with who the Israeli military says they targeted in attacks like this,' Miranda Cleland, of Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP), told MEE.
'Instead, look at the evidence: 183 dead children, comprising almost half of yesterday's death toll, tells me that this is a war on children," she added.
'Eighteen thousand dead children since 7 October 2023 tells me this is a war on children, regardless of what the Israeli military says.'
Tuesday marked one of the largest one-day child death tolls in Gaza's history, according to DCIP, which has documented such fatalities in the enclave since 2000.
Over the past 17 months of war, DCIP has monitored child death tolls provided by the Gaza health ministry and cannot recall a day as deadly as 18 March 2025.
'Gaza is a graveyard for children'
Among the slain children were Omar al-Jamassi, 15, and his sister Layan, 16. They were killed alongside their mother and siblings.
Layan had been excited to start the new school year on Tuesday morning. She was killed by an Israeli air strike hours before it was due to begin.
The political calculations behind Israel's decision to go back to war Read More »
She and Omar had attended a tent school set up as part of the Gaza Great Minds project.
'They were always smiling and share happiness everywhere they go,' said Ahmad Abu Rizik, who founded the project.
Cummings said that children and babies were more at risk of dying from air strikes.
'The risks for children in this context are extraordinary,' she said. 'Because they're so small, they have less blood, so they die much more frequently from blast injuries.'
Nearly half of Gaza's population are children, making it one the youngest territories in the world.
'Gaza has become a graveyard for children,' Ammar Ammar of Unicef, the UN's aid agency for children, told MEE.
'Children have been killed, injured, buried under rubble, frozen and starved to death, and many other horrors no child should be subjected to.'
'Imprint of trauma'
For those children who have survived Israel's 18-month war up to now, they have faced displacement and deprivation of basic needs.
Unicef estimates that all of Gaza's one million children are in need of mental health and psychosocial support, too.
'No child will emerge from the horrors of months of relentless bombardment without the imprint of trauma,' said Ammar.
'No child will emerge from the horrors of months of relentless bombardment without the imprint of trauma'
- Ammar Ammar, Unicef
For over two weeks, Israel has blocked all aid trucks from entering the enclave. Electricity has been cut for the past week.
Ammar said that has left many families struggling to provide enough food and safe water for their children.
'Children are dying of preventable conditions like malnutrition, dehydration, and hypothermia, due to Israel's siege on Gaza and the mass destruction of homes and the healthcare system,' said Cleland.
She added that Israeli attacks had left minors with lifelong disabilities, without proper follow up care, prosthetics or physical therapy.
Regarding Tuesday's attack, campaigners are clear that Israel has obligations to protect children.
'Children enjoy special protection under both international humanitarian law and international human rights law. They must never be a target,' said Ammar.
Cleland added: "Yesterday's attacks were not only a violation of the negotiated truce agreement, but a violation of international humanitarian law, which prohibits indiscriminate attacks.
"Bombing densely populated civilian areas is, by definition, indiscriminate."
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