Kneecap Counting: The Sick ‘Sport’ of Targeting Gaza’s Children.
Calculated leg and knee shootings as a weapon to maim, exhaust medics and deplete scarce resources & clear breaches of international law.
A Chilling Pattern: Aim, Shoot, Maim.
From Gaza’s streets to UN‑guarded aid lines, Israeli snipers and drones have repeatedly shot children in the legs, knees and lower bodies. It’s a pattern documented since early 2025 by Defence for Children International – Palestine.
One American doctor, asked to review hospital scans, told CBS:
“I thought these kids were in the wrong place at the wrong time… But after the third or fourth time, I realised it was intentional; bullets were being put in these kids on purpose.”
This is no accident.
The ‘Kneecap Competition’
While lacking official admission, survivor accounts and NGO investigations repeatedly indicate a militarised “competition” among Israeli snipers to shoot and disable as many kneecaps as possible—within hours. Not to kill, but to permanently maim. The trauma is widespread, turning playful children into lifelong cripples, if they manage to get beyond infections that don't kill them first.
Sniper Drones: Hunting from the Sky.
Drones equipped with sniper rifles have caused widespread terror among civilians in both public and private settings. Eyewitness accounts have reported being shot from hovering quadcopters, even in residential doorways, resulting in severe leg injuries and bone fractures. Targeting the lower body maximises the severity of the injuries, while simultaneously allowing the individual to survive, only to endure chronic pain and long-term disability.
Israel has employed various tactics to target and shoot children using drones. Numerous reports, both from eyewitnesses and surgeons working in hospitals, suggest a disproportionate number of single-shot sniper drone attacks targeting children in the head, often resulting in their immediate death.
A Jewish American orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Mark Perlmutter recently travelled to Gaza to treat the continuous influx of wounded civilians has reported that Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) snipers are deliberately targeting children.
His testimony is a wholly unpleasant eye-opener. Despite what Israeli officials say, civilians aren’t just random targets, and the Israeli military’s campaign in Gaza isn’t just about getting rid of Hamas. At this point, this is no surprise to anyone, but when a CBS News reporter asked him what he saw, he said: “All the disasters I’ve seen in my 30 years, from Ground Zero to earthquakes, doesn’t even come close to the level of carnage I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza.”
He explained that civilian casualties are almost exclusively children.
"I've never seen that before," he said. "I've seen more incinerated children than I've ever seen in my entire life, combined. I've seen more shredded children in just the first week… missing body parts, being crushed by buildings, the greatest majority, or bomb explosions, the next greatest majority. We've taken shrapnel as big as my thumb out of eight-year-olds. And then there's sniper bullets. I have children that were shot twice."
In another part of the interview he says:
“I have two children that I have photographs of that were shot so perfectly in the chest, I couldn't put my stethoscope over their heart more accurately, and directly on the side of the head, in the same child. No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the 'world's best sniper.' And they're dead-center shots."
Whilst single headshot kills are still happening, now, the trend is changing, because it turns out Israel has found by not killing children straight away, in the longer term they will end up killing more people by exacerbating the healthcare system tasked to save them.
A Medical System on the Verge of Collapse.
The few Gaza’s hospitals left are collapsing. Severe leg wounds require high levels of medical intervention, antibiotics, painkillers, blood transfusions, surgery, prosthetics, physiotherapy. Yet due to malnutrition, blood donations have dried up: a malnourished population have wiped out any viable donors. MSF’s medical manager in Deir al Balah said they struggle daily with wounds from legs and knees that rapidly become gangrenous.
One UNICEF analysis (May 2025) placed Gaza's per-capita child amputee rate as the highest in the world: some 25,000 children injured, with 3,000–4,000 new limb amputations, the majority from leg or knee wounds. These lower‑body traumas are not accidents—they are calculated strikes to cripple medical services.
Straining Medics: Supplies, Staff, Sanity.
Doctors describe anguish as children endure multiple operations—often without proper anaesthetic, and agonising rehabilitation. Save the Children’s paediatric head, Xavier Joubert, said:
“Children who have suffered life‑changing injuries don’t have the sustained, specialist treatment they need—from effective pain relief to long‑term rehabilitation.”
The WHO reported that by July 2024, at least 22,500 Gaza residents had life‑changing injuries in need of ongoing rehabilitation. With every new wave of kneecap shootings, hospital resources drain faster and more die under the demands.
Bloodless Hospitals: Malnutrition Meets Maiming.
Normally, blood donations would sustain transfusions for leg wounds. But Gaza’s famine-like conditions now mean that would be donors are too ill and ineligible. Transfusion capability has dropped to a trickle, worsening infection risks and surgical mortality. MSF staff confirm that even moderate leg wounds spiral into life-threatening conditions.
Food Aid as a Snare.
Aid lines have become ambushes. On 1 June, Israeli troops opened fire on crowds in Rafah queuing for food killing 30, and injuring 179. They used snipers, tanks and drone fire aimed low, crippling legs, kneecaps and ankles. Hospitals are now regularly reporting injury clusters directly linked to “official” aid distributions, with tank‑mounted guns treating civilians as targets. Tanks, against a completely unarmed, malnourished population.
International Law Violations.
International humanitarian law is clear: deliberate targeting of civilians, especially children, is a war crime. Wounding without combatant risk—shooting to maim—is expressly prohibited. The UNICEF and Save-the‑Children statistics speak volumes: more children amputated per capita than anywhere else globally.
What’s worse: these injuries are strategic, not random. They’re meant to terrorise, disable, over-stretch medical services—and do so using leg wounds designed to bleed, scar and infect.
A Campaign to Cripple Childhood.
Leg- and knee‑targeted shootings have become systematic, aiming to maim and terrorise children.
The medical system is overwhelmed. Supplies are fragile, blood donations are gone and medical staff are beyond exhausted.
Aid distribution zones have become lethal traps, with lower-body maiming is now part of a strategic playbook.
They are not accidents, they are war crimes. International bodies must urgently intervene, investigate and halt this rhetoric of maiming childhood in Gaza. But of course, they continue to do anything of any tangible action.
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Sources:
The Guardian – 1 June Aid Ambush in Rafah. Palestinians gunned down while trying to reach food aid site in Gaza.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/01/palestinians-gunned-down-while-trying-to-reach-food-aid-site-in-gaza-hospital-says?CMP=share_btn_url
SCNR – U.S. Doctors Report IDF Snipers Targeting Children. American doctors confirm Israeli snipers are deliberately shooting children in Gaza.
https://www.scnr.com/article/u-s-doctors-report-idf-snipers-intentionally-targeting-children-in-gaza_ebe4ffd74b6a11ef9c930242ac1c0002?utm/
Defence for Children International – Palestine.
Israeli snipers systematically target Palestinian children’s legs and knees.
https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_snipers_target_palestinian_children_in_gaza?utm/
Save the Children – Thousands of Children Wounded, Few Resources Gaza’s children suffer horrific injuries and face long-term recovery without treatment.
https://www.savethechildren.org.nz/media-hub/gaza-injured-children-struggling-to-recover?utm/
Middle East Monitor – MSF and Save the Children Doctors Speak Out. Doctors describe the impossible struggle to treat Gaza’s wounded children.
WHO – Gaza's Rehabilitation Crisis WHO outlines vast unmet rehabilitation needs for Gaza's war-injured population.
Reuters – Gaza's Amputees Forgotten in Warzone Hospitals Gaza’s injured live in limbo, with no care, no limbs, and no international help.
ABC News – Gaza Hospitals Collapse Under Weight of Wounded Doctors report severe shortages in drugs, blood, and basic supplies as leg wounds pile up.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/gaza-aid-children-supplies-hospital-israel/story?id=121618020&/
They used the same tactic during the Great March of Return in 2018.
As we‘ve just discovered, we might be touching upon the same topics and to be honest I wasn’t even aware that practice is being used today.
"I kept the casing of every round I fired. I have them in my room. So I don't have to make an estimate – I know: 52 definite hits."
These were the words of one of the IDF‘s snipers during the Great March of Return, interviewed by Haaretz.
Here are a few stories of individuals affected:
Fadi Abu Salmi, a 29-year-old double amputee, was shot in the chest while sitting in his wheelchair under a tree, approximately 250-300 meters from the separation fence. He died instantly.
Yousef Kronz, a 19-year-old student journalist wearing a blue "PRESS" vest, was shot while sitting on a sand dune, 800 meters from the fence. He was hit in both knees, leading to the amputation of his right leg.
A 16-year-old boy, distributing sandwiches to demonstrators about 300 meters from the fence, was shot in the face. The bullet entered through his nose and exited his skull, resulting in a fractured jaw, deafness in one ear, and loss of taste and smell.
Mohammad Ajouri, a 17-year-old member of the Palestinian Athletics Organization, was shot in the back of his right leg while providing onions and water to protestors suffering from tear gas exposure. His injury led to an amputation.
Alaa Dali, a 21-year-old cyclist for the Palestinian Cycling Team, was shot in the right leg while wearing his cycling gear and holding his bicycle, about 300 meters from the fence. Doctors had to amputate his leg above the knee to save his life.
16-year-old Ahmad Abu Tyoor was shot in the thigh while dancing a traditional Palestinian dance, just 10-15 meters from the separation fence. The bullet severed his femoral artery, and he succumbed to his injuries the following day.
If you haven’t watched „Where Olive trees weep“, please do!
Thank you for this information post.