An investigation by the Dutch daily De Volkskrant that meticulously documented the killing of 114 Palestinian children by single gunshots to the head or chest during Israel’s offensive in Gaza has been awarded the European Press Prize for 2026. Compiled by journalists Maud Effting and Willem Feenstra from the testimonies of doctors, nurses and international volunteers who served in Gazan hospitals, the report depicts what it calls an unmistakable pattern of deliberate targeting. The findings augment a staggering toll: more than 20,000 Palestinian children are estimated to have been killed since the war began, and humanitarian agencies have long argued that the scale and nature of such casualties point to systematic violations of international law.

In the occupied West Bank, a parallel escalation is under way. The United Nations records that settler violence has already surpassed 1,000 incidents this year, affecting over 230 communities and driving more than 2,200 Palestinian residents from their homes. Oxfam reports that the past three years have claimed more Palestinian lives than the previous 17 combined, with almost 270 children among the dead. Amnesty International has issued a 149-page report accusing Israel of orchestrating a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at permanent annexation, with forced displacement executed as state policy rather than the work of isolated extremists.

Yet the suffering of Palestinian civilians is not inflicted solely by Israel. A separate United Nations inquiry documents a brutal pattern of internal repression in Gaza, where forces linked to Hamas carried out 249 executions and other grave acts of physical violence between August 2024 and January 2026. At least 108 people were killed and 384 wounded, often after being labelled collaborators with Israel, looters of humanitarian aid, common criminals, or political rivals. The UN commission found that Hamas has systematically used such abuses to suppress dissent and consolidate control amid the chaos of war.

Globally, the casualty numbers reinforce the asymmetry. A monitoring group reported this week that civilian deaths from explosive weapons dropped by 21 percent in 2025, largely owing to ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, yet Israeli armed forces were responsible for 56 percent of all recorded civilian fatalities. Taken together, the evidence produced by the UN, Amnesty, Oxfam and now an award-winning press investigation poses an increasingly difficult challenge for Western governments that have shielded Israel from accountability. As international jurists in The Hague examine the material, the dual crises of external bombardment and internal authoritarianism leave ordinary Palestinians trapped between the anvil of occupation and the hammer of their own rulers.