Authorities in Gaza say Israeli forces have left toy-shaped explosive devices in civilian neighborhoods, raising new concerns about the dangers facing children living under the nearly year-long assault.

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Munir al-Barsh, Director General of Gaza’s Health Ministry, stated on Monday that inspectors had found “bombs in the shape of dolls” in residential zones across the enclave. He said the devices appear intentionally designed to lure children and detonate once handled.

According to al-Barsh, the Israeli military “not only left destroyed houses, but also time bombs in the hands of children.” He described the objects as toys resembling birds, bears or dolls that could easily attract a child’s attention.

“When a child reaches out for a beautiful toy, the terrible truth explodes: an army that calls itself moral has planted death in the heart of a child,” he said.

UNICEF reports that more than one million children in Gaza continue to lack access to clean water and food, noting that — even during temporary pauses in fighting — “each night they go to bed hungry.”

Al-Barsh warned that the threat extends beyond physical harm to the psychological trauma inflicted on Gaza’s youth. “Today in Gaza, the war not only kills with bullets, but also with innocence… when play turns into death and laughter into screams, the child realizes that the world’s silence toward this crime makes it complicit.”

Since October 2023, at least 68,643 Palestinians — most of them women and children — have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

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