The Palestinian territories and Israel recorded the highest number of verified child victims of any conflict situation worldwide in 2025, according to a UN report released on Wednesday.
The UN Secretary General's annual report on children and armed conflict stated that there were 12,445 grave violations against children in the Palestinian territories and Israel last year.
The report documented nearly 40,000 grave violations against children across conflict zones globally, the highest total since the monitoring mechanism was established two decades ago.
Globally, the UN verified 14,224 cases of children killed or maimed in 2025, the single most prevalent category of grave violation. The Palestinian territories and Israel again recorded the highest number of such cases, followed by Sudan, Myanmar, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The report attributed the toll in the Palestinian territories and Israel largely to Israeli military operations, particularly air strikes, which it said killed and maimed children even as a growing number of armed groups operating in the territory coincided with a sharp rise in child recruitment and use.
Recruitment of children also surged elsewhere. In Lebanon, the UN verified the recruitment and use of 132 boys by armed groups during the year – among them 26 by Fatah, 21 by Jund Ansar Allah, 19 by Hamas and 13 by Hezbollah, with the remainder distributed across smaller factions.
Most of the children were used in support roles rather than in combat, the report said.
“The scale and persistence of these violations demand more than acknowledgement; they demand resolve,” the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral for Children and Armed Conflict, Vanessa Frazier said.
“This report is not a wake-up call, because if humanity is not awake after all that children have endured – and continue to endure – then we must acknowledge that we are choosing to look away. And that choice carries consequences measured in children's lives.”
