Israel killing at least one Palestinian child a week in West Bank, Unicef says

Israeli forces have killed an average of at least one Palestinian child a week in the occupied West Bank since the start of 2025, a Unicef spokesperson said on Tuesday.

James Elder said 70 children had been killed since then, warning they were paying “an intolerable price for escalating militarised operations and settler attacks”.

A further 850 children have been wounded, with most injuries caused by live ammunition.

“All this comes amid historic levels of settler attacks,” Elder said, adding that documented assaults on children included pepper sprayings, beatings, stabbings and shootings.

Children are also increasingly at risk of arrest and detention by Israeli forces. At least 347 Palestinian children are being held in Israeli military detention over alleged security-related offences.

According to the rights group Save the Children, Palestinian children are the only children in the world systematically prosecuted in military courts.

More than half of those detained - 180 children - are being held under administrative detention, a controversial Israeli policy that allows Palestinians to be imprisoned without charge or trial for indefinitely renewable periods.

Testimonies gathered by leading rights groups, along with media reports, say detained children have faced starvation, beatings, sexual abuse and other inhumane treatment.

In November 2024, the Israeli parliament passed a law allowing the detention of children as young as 12.

'Demolition of childhood'

Elder said the attacks on children were not isolated incidents, but part of a wider pattern of violations targeting their basic rights, homes, schools and essential infrastructure.

Israeli restrictions have increasingly limited Palestinians’ freedom of movement in the West Bank, as well as access to essentials including water, education, shelter and healthcare.

“What is unfolding is not only an escalation in violence against Palestinian children; it is the steady dismantling of the conditions children need to survive and grow,” he said.

“Education is also under sustained assault. For thousands of children across the West Bank, the daily journey to school has become a walk through fear,” Elder added.

This year alone, there have been 99 documented cases of education being disrupted, including the killing, detention and wounding of students, as well as school demolitions, the military use of educational facilities and restrictions on access to learning.

"Attacks on schools and the denial of children’s access to education are grave violations against children with long-term consequences for their safety, wellbeing, and future."

Elder also highlighted the growing displacement of Palestinians, with over 2,500 - including 1,100 children - having been forcibly expelled from their homes between January and April, surpassing the total recorded for all of 2025.

Water infrastructure, including sanitation and irrigation systems, has also repeatedly come under attack from Israeli forces and settlers.

"This has serious implications for both the Palestinian economy and children’s health, hygiene, and dignity," Elder said. 

"Taken together, these patterns reveal an overarching reality: children are being targeted both through direct violence, and through the dismantling of essential systems and services. Their suffering cannot be normalised."