38 children were killed, 20 orphaned on Oct. 7: ‘The state did not pass the test of protecting them’

According to data released by Israel National Council for the Child, 38 children were killed in Israel on October 7 during the Hamas-led terrorist onslaught.

Three of those children were under the age of three, and four were aged 3-6.

In addition, 42 children were abducted to the Gaza Strip by Hamas and other terrorist organizations, nine of them under the age of five and nine of them over the age of 18. Forty of them were released during a temporary ceasefire last November, which classified a child as someone under the age of 19 who was not in military service.

Two of the children kidnapped on October 7 — Kfir and Ariel Bibas — remain in Gaza.

Fifteen of the children who were held hostage in Gaza still have a parent in captivity in the Strip.

In addition, 20 children were orphaned and 96 lost one parent, the organization says.

The head of the Israel National Council for the Child, Vered Windman, says they are figures that “the mind cannot digest and the soul cannot bear.”

“The situation of the children in Israel in the first months of the war shows to a large extent that the state did not pass the test of protecting them,” she says.