United Nations, May 12th - The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have issued a stark warning about escalating violence against Palestinian children in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to UNICEF, some 70 Palestinian children have been killed since January 2025, with an average of one child per week falling victim to such attacks.
UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder reported that documented incidents include children being shot, stabbed, beaten, and pepper-sprayed. The spokesperson emphasized the increasing coordination of these attacks, noting that March 2026 saw the highest number of Palestinians injured by settler violence in the past two decades.
Following a recent visit to the West Bank, Elder described meeting an eight-year-old who had been beaten with a piece of wood during a settler attack and hospitalized for head injuries. The child’s mother explained that she had protected her four-month-old baby by reaching across to shield it from the attacker's club, resulting in both her arms being broken.
Elder also highlighted the prevalence of education-related attacks, including killings, injuries, and detentions of students, as well as the demolition of schools. He stressed that these institutions, which should be places of safety and stability, are increasingly becoming sites of fear and panic for children.
In Gaza, UNICEF reports a sharp rise in arrests and detention of Palestinian children by Israeli military forces, with 347 such cases documented so far this year, marking the highest number in eight years. More than half of these detained children (180) are held under administrative detention without procedural safeguards, including limited access to legal counsel and the right to challenge their detention.
Dr. Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, WHO’s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, reported that some 10,000 children in Gaza live with life-changing injuries since the October 2025 ceasefire. Overall, an estimated 43,000 of the 172,000 people injured in Gaza since October 2023 have sustained such trauma, affecting limbs, spinal cords, or brains.
The WHO representative further highlighted a severe shortage of rehabilitation supplies, including wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs. No less than 18 shipments of these critical items are pending clearance to enter Gaza, with waiting times ranging from 130 days to more than a year. Every day that rehabilitation services remain under-resourced is a day preventing preventable disability risks from becoming permanent.
The United Nations has called for urgent international attention and support to address the escalating violence against Palestinian children and ensure access to necessary medical care and rehabilitation services in Gaza.
