Violence against children reached ‘unprecedented levels’ last year, especially in Gaza and West Bank, UN says
Violence against children in conflict zones surged to unprecedented levels in 2024, with Gaza and the West Bank notably affected.
Violence against children caught in multiple and escalating conflicts reached “unprecedented levels” last year, with the highest number of violations in Gaza and the West Bank, Congo, Somalia, Nigeria and Haiti, according to a UN report released late Thursday.
Secretary-General António Guterres’ annual report on Children in Armed Conflict detailed “a staggering 25% surge in grave violations” against children under the age of 18 from 2023, when the number of such violations rose by 21%.
In 2024, the UN chief said, “Children bore the brunt of relentless hostilities and indiscriminate attacks, and were affected by the disregard for ceasefires and peace agreements and by deepening humanitarian crises.”
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He cited warfare strategies that included attacks on children, the deployment of increasingly destructive and explosive weapons in populated areas, and “the systematic exploitation of children for combat.”
Guterres said the United Nations verified 41,370 grave violations against children – 36,221 committed in 2024 and 5,149 committed earlier but verified last year. The violations include killing, maiming, recruiting and abducting children, sexual violence against them, attacking schools and hospitals and denying youngsters access to humanitarian aid.
The UN kept Israeli forces on its blacklist of countries that violate children’s rights for a second year, citing 7,188 verified grave violations by its military, including the killing of 1,259 Palestinian children and injury to 941 others in Gaza. The Gaza health ministry has reported much higher figures, but the UN has strict criteria and said its process of verification is ongoing.
Guterres said he is “appalled by the intensity of grave violations against children in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel,” and “deeply alarmed” by the increase in violations, especially the high number of children killed by Israeli forces.
He reiterated his calls on Israel to abide by international law requiring special protections for children, protection for schools and hospitals, and compliance with the requirement that attacks distinguish between combatants and civilians and avoid excessive harm to civilians.
The UN also kept Hamas, whose surprise 7 October 2023 attack in southern Israel sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on the blacklist.
