The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights raises the alarm at the rate by which the Israeli regime has been killing Palestinian children so far this year.

“Inflicting hurt on any child during the course of conflict is deeply disturbing, and the killing and maiming of so many children this year is unconscionable,” Michelle Bachelet said on Thursday.

So far this year, 37 Palestinian children have been killed at the hands of Israeli forces. The figure includes 19 children, who perished as a result of the Israeli regime’s recent back-to-back airstrikes against alleged positions belonging to the Palestinian resistance movement of the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian girl succumbs to wounds sustained in Israel’s attack on Gaza

10-year-old Palestinian girl seriously injured in the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza succumbs to the wounds she sustained during Israel

“International humanitarian law is clear,” the UN official said. “Launching an attack which may be expected to incidentally kill or injure civilians, or damage civilian objects, in disproportionate manner to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated, is prohibited. Such attacks must stop.”

Including the child fatalities, as many as 74 Palestinians have been killed so far this year, many as a result of the use of lethal force by Israeli authorities in a manner described by the UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Territories as a violation of international human rights law.

Bachelet condemned the widespread use of live ammunition by Israeli forces during operations across the Tel Aviv-occupied West Bank, including East al-Quds, that had “led to an alarming increase in Palestinian fatalities.”

The official finally lamented “this climate of impunity, along with the long-standing violations” that drives the cycle of violence and the recurrence of violations.