Every year on October 1st, Iran observes the Day of Solidarity and Empathy with Palestinian Children and Adolescents—a designation established by the Iranian Council for Public Culture in memory of 12-year-old Muhammad Jamal al-Durra, whose killing at the hands of Zionist soldiers became one of the most searing images of the Second Intifada.
The Boy Behind the Concrete Barrier
On September 30, 2000, Muhammad al-Durra, a fifth-grade student from the Al-Bureij refugee camp near Gaza, accompanied his father Jamal—a carpenter—on a shopping trip. When protests erupted among Palestinian youth and Zionist soldiers opened fire on the demonstrators, father and son took shelter behind a concrete barrel.
Muhammad’s cries, begging the soldiers not to shoot, went unanswered. In full view of a France 2 camera operated by correspondent Talal Abu Rahme, Zionist soldiers fired deliberately. The boy was killed in his father’s arms; Jamal al-Durra was seriously wounded.
Muhammad was born on November 22, 1988. His family originally hailed from the city of Ramla, from which Palestinian residents were expelled during the 1948 Nakba by the Zionist regime.
A Symbol of the Al-Aqsa Intifada
The Second Palestinian Intifada—known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada—erupted on September 28, 2000, after Ariel Sharon made a provocative march to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Sharon was also among the chief architects of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon.
The Intifada continued until February 2005, when a ceasefire was brokered at Sharm el-Sheikh between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Sharon. Over those years, 4,412 Palestinians were martyred and approximately 50,000 were injured.
The footage of Muhammad al-Durra’s killing, broadcast repeatedly across the world, transformed the boy into an enduring symbol of Palestinian resistance. His blood became synonymous with the Second Intifada itself.
The Demographic War Against Palestinian Children
Since the occupation of Palestine, one of the Zionist regime’s persistent anxieties has been the demographic balance between Palestinians and settlers. The growth of Palestinian children and adolescents is viewed as an existential threat—the coming generation that will sustain the struggle for liberation.
Consequently, a central pillar of Zionist policy has been the systematic reduction of the Palestinian population through killings, arrests, detention, and the expansion of illegal settlements. Palestinian resistance leaders, in turn, have consistently emphasised the importance of maintaining demographic strength as a form of steadfastness (sumud).
Because Palestinian families tend to have more children than settler families, the targeting of Palestinian minors—through killing, imprisonment, and psychological warfare—serves as an unspoken instrument to suppress population growth and weaken the Resistance, even after more than 74 years of occupation.
The Numbers That Speak
According to the Society to Protect the Palestinian People, in 2013 the Palestinian population stood at 5.9 million against 6 million settlers. By 2020, despite decades of targeted violence, the ratio had shifted: 7.2 million Palestinians versus 6.9 million settlers.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that by mid-2022, approximately 2.35 million children under 18 lived in territories under Palestinian Authority administration—constituting 43.9% of the total population (41.7% in the West Bank and 47.3% in Gaza).
Between 2000 and the end of 2021, approximately 3,000 Palestinian children were martyred. Of these:
315 were killed during the 2009 Zionist aggression on Gaza.
546 were killed during the 2014 aggression.
Tens of thousands more were injured during protests against the ongoing occupation.
Children Behind Bars
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (April 2022), 78 Palestinian children were killed by Zionist bullets in the preceding year alone. Meanwhile, 160 Palestinian children were held in Zionist prisons in conditions violating international law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child—denied education, denied childhood.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Information reported that 200 children were in detention at any given time, with the Zionist regime arresting between 700 and 1,000 Palestinian minors annually—a figure that surged to approximately 2,000 in 2016.
Published reports confirmed that even infants were among those imprisoned, forced into detention alongside their mothers.
Rayan Suleiman: Another Stolen Childhood
On September 29, 2022, Zionist occupiers chased several Palestinian children in Bethlehem. Seven-year-old Rayan Suleiman, terrified and fleeing, fell from a height. His heart stopped. He was seven years old.
The Silence of the “International Community”
All of these crimes unfold while the United Nations, its agencies, human rights organisations, and Western governments—chiefly the United States and the United Kingdom—maintain a studied silence. These same powers, which have provided unconditional political, military, and financial backing to the Zionist regime for decades, mobilise every available resource to condemn their adversaries while refusing to name the crimes committed against Palestinian children.
Since October 7, 2023: An Unfolding Genocide
Since October 7, 2023, at least 21,700 Palestinian children have been martyred in the Zionist regime’s aggression on the Gaza Strip. According to UNICEF, this figure—recorded as of June 30, 2026—continues to climb. Thousands more children have been injured, many left with permanent disabilities.
A Day of Remembrance and Resistance
October 1st is not merely a date of mourning. It is a reaffirmation: that the children of Palestine are not forgotten, that their blood is not in vain, and that the ummah stands with them. From Muhammad al-Durra to Rayan Suleiman to the tens of thousands whose names will never make headlines, their memory fuels the resolve of every person who refuses to accept occupation as permanence.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Reference: Shia News