A nine-year-old girl was shot in the head and killed by the IDF in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Thursday while she was attending class in a tent, health and education officials in the Strip told Reuters.
The girl, Ritaj Rihan, a third-grade student, was hit with the bullet in front of her classmates, causing a “strong psychological shock” to the other children, the report said.
“She was sitting at her desk with 44 other students around her when she suddenly collapsed. It was later confirmed that she had been shot in the neck,” Mohamed al-Attar, the principal of the school, told the Quds News Network.
Al-Attar said the shot came from the eastern side of the school near the so-called “yellow line,” which separates the IDF-occupied side of Gaza from the rest of the Strip, less than two kilometers away from where Israeli forces are stationed.
“I dropped her off at the school gate, never imagining it would be the last time I’d see her walking,” Rihan’s father told local media. He said that on the way to school, the girl was speaking “excitedly about her preparations for her uncle’s upcoming wedding, including wearing her best dress and styling her hair.”
At least three other Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes in northern and southern Gaza on Thursday as the IDF continues its constant violations of the US-backed ceasefire deal signed in October 2025. Palestinians also held a funeral for Mohammed Wishah, a correspondent for Al Jazeera, who was killed by an Israeli strike on his car a day earlier.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily update on Thursday that since the ceasefire deal was signed, the IDF has killed 738 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,036.
