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.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres'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.
"I am appalled by the magnitude of grave violations against children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, notably by the widespread use of explosive weapons in populated areas," Mr Guterres said in the report.
"I am deeply alarmed at the staggering rise in attacks carried out by Israeli settlers resulting in grave violations against Palestinian children."
He said Israeli settler groups should be listed on a blacklist for violence against children if the high number of violations is repeated in 2026.
The report said 9,465 grave violations were attributed to Israeli forces and 326 to Israeli settlers.
The report comes weeks after Mr Guterres drew sharp criticism from Israel by placing the country on a separate UN list of parties suspected of committing conflict-related sexual violence, prompting Israel's Foreign Ministry to announce it would cut all ties with him.
The world body's annual report on Children and Armed Conflict documented 38,558 "grave violations" globally in 2025, 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 the 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,” said Vanessa Frazier, the special representative of the secretary general for children and armed conflict.
“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.”
