The recent anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child on Nov. 20 begs the question: How can the church faithfully live out the calls of World Children’s Day while the war in Gaza has left thousands of children without their homes, their families and their lives?
Inspired in part by her Christian faith, the children’s influencer Rachel Anne Accurso, better known as Ms. Rachel, offers a prophetic example of how we might stand in solidarity with children facing unimaginable violence in Gaza and across the occupied Palestinian territories. Ms. Rachel’s courage and moral clarity set an example for Christians everywhere. Her refusal to turn away from the horrors of Israel’s military campaign across occupied Palestine and its disproportionate impact on children should prompt the church to do the same.
Destiny Magnett
Since the onset of the war in 2023, at least 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza. In the West Bank, 40 children have been killed by Israeli forces in 2025. Beyond these deaths, a November 2025 report from Israeli human rights group B’Tselem found more than 350 minors are being held in Israeli detention, nearly half without charges. These children have names, hopes and dreams.
Each of us, as followers of the Prince of Peace, has a responsibility to call for an end to this oppression. No child should live under these conditions of violence. Here, the church can take a lesson from Ms. Rachel, who has become one of Palestinian children’s fiercest advocates.
In an August 2025 Instagram post calling for humanitarian aid in Gaza, she wrote: “If you think Jesus approves of the starvation in Gaza, you need to re-read your Bible. Jesus is with the starving. He is with the oppressed. When you feed the hungry, you feed him. When you starve the hungry, you starve him. Jesus is starving in Gaza.”
This call is an embodiment of Christlike love, something many American churches have been unwilling to model when it comes to Gaza — and Palestine more broadly. While traveling the country with Churches for Middle East Peace, I have met thousands of American Christians, far too often hearing the refrain of “it’s too complicated,” or “we don’t want to upset people” as a rationale for why they have not talked about Gaza in their churches.
Despite backlash, Ms. Rachel counteracts dehumanizing narratives that reduce children to numbers and sound bites by telling the story of Rahaf, Anne, Ahmed, Luna, Mohammed and more children by name. The church ought to be courageous enough to do the same. If we are not willing to speak boldly for children’s rights to life and dignity, what does that mean for the credibility of our gospel witness?
I am reminded here of the disciples in the Gospel of Matthew who rebuke the people bringing their children to Jesus to receive prayer. In response to this, Jesus says in Matthew 19:14, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
In today’s context, we are being confronted with images of the tremendous suffering of children in both Gaza and the West Bank. These children, like all children around the world, deserve to live with the kinds of dignity outlined and adopted in the U.N. Convention and inherent in the message every child is created in the image of God.
Fortunately, Ms. Rachel does not stand entirely alone when it comes to Christians speaking out loudly for the rights of children in occupied Palestine. In 2023, Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum reintroduced “The Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.” The legislation became a centerpiece of the No Way to Treat a Child campaign, which garnered widespread endorsement from Christian organizations, including the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Mennonite Central Committee, United Church of Christ and more.
Similarly, at Churches for Middle East Peace, we are centering Palestinian children with a simple call to action this Advent season: Let Children Live. The campaign invites denominations, congregations, and individuals to receive the first name and age of a child living in occupied Palestine to uplift in prayer and advocacy by name. The campaign seeks to embody the idea not only should children not be killed, but they should be empowered to live with joy, play, comfort, safety and freedom.
More than 2 million children live under brutal oppression in Gaza and the West Bank.
Their lives are too often reduced to statistics. But Ms. Rachel and the gospel remind us every child is beloved by God. As we await the coming of the Prince of Peace embodied in an infant born in Bethlehem, churches must move to the frontlines of this work, having the courage to pray and advocate for the children of Gaza, the West Bank, and the world.
This article was produced in collaboration with The Narrative Project of The Christian Century magazine.
Destiny Magnett speaks and writes at the intersections of religion, peacebuilding, and justice. She serves as the Programs and Outreach Manager at Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) and is part of the inaugural cohort of Storytelling Fellows at the Narrative Project of the Christian Century.