The United Nations has once again listed Israel among parties committing grave violations against children in armed conflict, according to its 2024 annual report on Children in Armed Conflict.
The report, released on Thursday, documented a staggering 25% global increase in verified violations against children, totaling 41,370 cases, with the highest number — 8,554 — recorded in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Of these, 7,188 were attributed to the Israeli army and security forces, alongside settlers, targeting 2,959 children, including 2,944 Palestinians and 15 Israelis.
The violations included 1,259 Palestinian children killed and 941 wounded in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing genocide.
The report detailed severe abuses in Gaza, with 4,856 violations, and 3,688 in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
These included killings, maiming, detentions, and obstructions of humanitarian aid, with 951 Palestinian children detained and reports of ill-treatment and sexual abuse.
The UN also noted 2,263 cases of denied humanitarian access in Gaza and 5,091 in the West Bank.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed alarm, stating, “I am deeply concerned by the significant rise in grave violations in the Gaza Strip, and I am deeply alarmed by the escalating violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
Globally, the report highlighted a 17% rise in children facing multiple violations, with conflict zones like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Nigeria, and Haiti also registering high numbers.
Lebanon saw the sharpest increase at 545%, followed by Mozambique and Haiti. Virginia Gamba, Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, called the surge a “wake-up call,” urging, “We face a choice that defines who we are: to care, or to turn away … We all share the duty to act—with urgency, with determination—to bring this suffering to an end. Not tomorrow. Not someday. Today.”
The report emphasized the need for governments and armed groups to uphold international laws protecting children, amid concerns that unverified cases, including 4,470 additional child deaths in Gaza, may push numbers higher.