It Took 24 Hours to Speak the Names of 12,000 Children Israel Killed in Gaza—A Fraction of the Total

Community members concluded a 24-hour vigil at Harvard University on Wednesday during which the names of almost 12,000 children slain in Gaza by Israeli forces were read aloud, signifying only a partial list of child casualties documented by the United Nations Children's Fund, which found that at least 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed or wounded in the embattled enclave during 600 days of U.S.-backed genocidal slaughter.

They All Have Names—a coalition of parents, educators, students, healthcare workers, faith leaders, and other community members—gathered at Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts to hold the vigil ahead of Harvard University's commencement ceremonies on Thursday.

"These children—lives that should never be reduced to numbers—are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors."

According to the Harvard branch of Students for Justice in Palestine, it took nearly an hour-and-a-half just to read the names of infants killed by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023. Victims' names were read in ascending order of their ages.

"At least 17,400 children have been killed in Gaza since October 7," said Dr. Lara Jirmanus a family physician and clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. "They include at least 825 babies who could not celebrate their first birthday; 895 one-year olds; 3,266 preschoolers; 4,032 between the ages of 6 and 10; 3,646 middle schoolers; and 2,949 teenagers."

"We gather today to remember them, their hopes, and dreams," Jirmanus added. "And to remember that we have the power to stop this unspeakable catastrophe, by demanding our elected officials stop sending arms for genocide."

The vigil occurred against a backdrop of continued genocide denial and aspersions of casualty data provided by the Gaza Health Ministry—figures that Israeli military officials have repeatedly found to be accurate, and that peer-reviewed research published in The Lancet, one of the world's preeminent medical journals, has determined to likely be a vast undercount.

Jirmanus told Common Dreams that the names of around 12,000 children killed in Gaza between October 2023 and October 2024 were recited during the vigil at a rate of about 500 names per hour.

As the vigil took place, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)—which has called Gaza "the world's most dangerous place to be a child"—announced its latest estimate that 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed or injured in Gaza since Israel began attacking and besieging the strip in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.

All told, the Gaza Health Ministry says that at least 191,285 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces, including upward of 14,000 people who are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings.

Among those maimed by Israel's onslaught are thousands of children who have had one or more limbs amputated, often without anesthesia due to the Israeli blockade. Many surviving Palestinian children have also lost one or both parents. Some have lost their entire families. A new acronym has even been coined to describe some of these orphans: WCNSF, or "wounded child, no surviving family."

"In a 72-hour period this weekend, images from two horrific attacks provide yet more evidence of the unconscionable cost of this ruthless war on children in the Gaza Strip," UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder said in a statement.

"On Friday, we saw videos of the bodies of burnt, dismembered children from the al-Najjar family being pulled from the rubble of their home in Khan Younis," Beigbeder noted. "Of 10 siblings under 12 years old, only one reportedly survived, with critical injuries."

"Early Monday, we saw images of a small child trapped in a burning school in Gaza City. That attack, in the early hours of the morning, reportedly killed at least 31 people, including 18 children," he continued.

"These children—lives that should never be reduced to numbers—are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors: the grave violations against children, the blockade of aid, the starvation, the constant forced displacement, and the destruction of hospitals, water systems, schools, and homes," Beigbeder added. "In essence, the destruction of life itself in the Gaza Strip."

Last year, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for the first time added Israel to his so-called "List of Shame" of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts.

The Harvard vigil took place as Israeli occupation forces pressed ahead with Operation Gideon's Chariots, a campaign of conquest, indefinite occupation, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza to make way for new Israeli settlements.

They All Have Names noted:

Conditions in Gaza are more catastrophic than ever, as Israel has blocked humanitarian aid for nearly three months, only recently allowing a few trucks of aid, which the U.N. warned was "nowhere near enough." Using starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors without Borders, and an independent U.N. commission have all concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

As officials in Gaza report hundreds of deaths—mostly of children and elders—from malnutrition and lack of medical care, even Israeli officials are speaking out against what former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently called a "war of extermination."

Extermination and forced starvation are among the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity for which current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The other Hague-based global tribunal, the International Court of Justice, is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa and backed by dozens of countries, either individually or as members of regional blocs.

The 24-hour vigil also took place as U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican administration—which continues to offer billions of dollars in arms as well as diplomatic support for Israel even as it acknowledges the mass starvation Gaza—wage a rhetorical and financial war against Harvard.

While the administration claims its moves to strip Harvard of federal funding and contracts and block international students from attending the nation's oldest university are responses to its failure to adequately address alleged antisemitism on campus, many critics argue Trump is targeting the Ivy League school over its defiance of the president's "war on woke" and to bend other powerful institutions to his will.

"While we are relieved that Harvard has not conceded to all of the Trump administration's demands, we continue to be alarmed by the university's repressive measures which have been aimed at silencing dissent and protest against genocide, and eliminating teaching and research about Palestine," vigil co-organizer Sandra Susan Smith, who is a professor of criminal justice at Harvard Kennedy School, said Tuesday.

"We call on Harvard to defend free speech, academic freedom, and to adopt an ethical investment policy to ensure that it is not funding human rights abuses with its $50 billion endowment," she added.

Vigil participants and UNICEF both called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

"The children of Gaza need protection. They need food, water, and medicine. They need a cease-fire," said Beigbeder. "But more than anything, they need immediate, collective action to stop this once and for all."