Israel was responsible for the highest number of verified grave violations against children in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2025, according to a new UN report, which recorded a sharp rise in abuses against children in conflict zones worldwide.
The report, titled Children and Armed Conflict 2025 and prepared by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, found that grave violations against children increased by 34 per cent compared with the previous year.
According to the 47-page report, parties to armed conflicts committed a record number of grave violations against children in 2025, marking “the highest number of children affected since the establishment of the Children and Armed Conflict mandate”.
The UN documented 38,558 grave violations against children worldwide during 2025.
These violations included killing and maiming, recruitment and use of children, abduction, rape and other forms of sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access.
READ: Palestinian female prisoner Lama Khater details alleged abuse in Israeli prisons
The report said the UN verified a total of 12,445 grave violations against children linked to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, including 12,436 cases in the occupied Palestinian territories and nine in Israel.
Of these, 5,452 violations were recorded in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and 6,984 in the Gaza Strip.
The report said Israeli forces were responsible for 9,465 grave violations against children, while 326 additional violations were attributed to Israeli settlers seeking to seize Palestinian land.
According to the report, Israeli forces detained 981 Palestinian children in 2025, including 973 boys and eight girls. It said 180 children were held without charge or trial, while 66 reported being subjected to physical violence and other forms of ill-treatment during detention.
The report also recorded the death of one Palestinian child in detention and said the UN had verified three cases in which Israeli forces used children as human shields in Gaza and the West Bank.
It added that 2,223 children were injured in the Gaza Strip and 2,921 others in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, by Israeli forces and Israeli settlers seeking to take over Palestinian land.
READ: US envoy says ‘without Israel, there would be no America’
