UN reports ‘sharp rise’ in Israeli attacks on Palestinian children

UN agencies have warned that both the Israeli military and settlers are murdering or permanently injuring increasing numbers of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank. Compounding the issue, access to treatment for those injuries is in desperately short supply.

UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder stated that Palestine was suffering from “historic levels of settler attacks”. Since January 2025, Israelis have killed around 70 children. Beyond this, 850 children have been injured. In both cases, the majority of the attacks used live ammunition.

Likewise, since the October 2025 ‘ceasefire’, UN agents have recorded over 229 children killed and 260 injured in Gaza alone.

Palestinian children facing coordinated attacks

Speaking from Geneva, Elder added that:

We’re seeing attacks become increasingly coordinated. Documented incidents include children shot, stabbed, children beaten, and children pepper-sprayed.

He also explained that there has been a “sharp rise” in Israelis detaining or arresting Palestinian children in the occupied territory. In fact, these levels have now hit their highest totals of the last 8 years.

At least 347 minors are currently imprisoned in Israeli military detention “for alleged security-related offences”. Worse still, 180 of that number are being:

held under administrative detention and without the procedural safeguards, including detention without regular access to legal counsel and the right to challenge detention.

Schools becoming ‘places of panic’

Elder described how, during a recent West Bank visit, he met an 8-year-old who was beaten by a settler. The resulting head injuries hospitalised the child, and his mother:

had both her arms broken when she reached across to protect her four-month-old baby, putting therefore her arms between her baby and the attacker’s club.

The UN official also reported on the alarming prevalence of attacks on attacks on children in or around schools. Israelis have targeted schools for demolition, and detained, injured or even killed the students themselves. The spokesperson explained that:

Schools, which should be places of safety and stability, are increasingly becoming places of panic.

I walked with schoolchildren through the West Bank so as to try and help them avoid any attacks. It’s interesting to watch them walk… They don’t walk in a straight line because they’re constantly looking over their shoulder.

This is a walk to school. It’s become a walk through fear.

‘Preventable disability risks become permanent’

Speaking from Jerusalem, the UN World Health Organization (WHO)’s representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories – Dr Reinhilde Van de Weerdt – reported that roughly 10,000 children are living with life-changing injuries in the Gaza strip.

Since October 2023, a total of around 43,000 of the 172,000 people injured in Gaza have sustained significant trauma to the limbs, the spinal cord or brain. Likewise, of those 172,000, nearly 2,500 were wounded after the so-called ‘ceasefire’ of October 2025.

Currently, over 50,000 conflict-related injuries are in need of long-term rehabilitation. However, the are currently no operational rehabilitation facilities within Gaza. The WHO representative added the chilling warning that:

Every day that rehabilitation services in Gaza remain under-resourced is a day that preventable disability risks become permanent.

The severe shortage of prosthetics in the Strip further exacerbates this issue. Van de Weerdt explained that:

Of the 2,277 people that have had a limb amputated, less than 25 per cent have been fitted with permanent prosthetics.

However, that shortage of medical equipment is being engineered by Israel. Currently, 18 shipments of prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs and other rehabilitation-related supplies are ‘pending clearance’ for entry into Gaza. The waiting times vary from just above 4 months to over a year.

Featured image via the Canary