Nineteen Palestinian children have been killed in the past 10 days, making November already the

second deadliest month of the year for young people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, UNICEF said Friday.

The UN children's Fund said 17 have been killed in Gaza and two in the West Bank so far in November. Only July - when 40 children were killed - was worse, the agency said.

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"What children and adolescents have endured the past few days will likely have a long-lasting impact," UNICEF spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said in Geneva. "They have seen family members killed and their communities destroyed.

They have been confined to their homes, in many cases without access to food, water or electricity."

Israeli artillery shells ripped through a residential neighborhood Wednesday in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least 18 people, including eight children.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a "technical failure" meant the artillery hit the homes instead of an

orange grove, some 1,500 feet away, from which troops saw rockets fired seconds earlier.

Bociurkiw estimated that more than 300 children have been injured this month by Israeli attacks. For the year, he said 116 Palestinian children have been killed, compared with only 52 last year.