© OCHA/Z. Tayeb A boy walks through the ruins of houses in Gaza. UN: Children continue to be killed and seriously injured in Gaza and the West Bank Peace and Security
Children in the occupied West Bank continue to suffer as a result of Israeli military operations and increased settler attacks. Meanwhile, in Gaza, tens of thousands of people with serious injuries remain without the necessary treatment and rehabilitation. Representatives of UN agencies warned about this on Tuesday.
Speaking in Geneva, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesman James Elder said children in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, were “paying an intolerable price” for ongoing violence.
Since January 2025, around 70 children have been killed there, with an average of at least one child every week. Another 850 children were injured, mostly from live ammunition.
Settler Attacks
All of this is happening against the backdrop of “an unprecedented level of settler attacks,” Elder said. He noted that in March 2026, there was a record number of casualties from such attacks in the last 20 years. (OCHA). According to him, there have been documented cases of children being shot, beaten, stabbed, or pepper sprayed.Elder said that during a recent trip to the West Bank, he met an eight-year-old boy who had been beaten with a wooden stick during a settler attack. The child suffered head injuries and was hospitalized.
“His mother suffered fractures to both arms when she tried to cover her four-month-old baby,” – he added.
Attacks on schools
The UNICEF representative also expressed concern about the increasing number of attacks related to the education system, including the killing, injury and detention of schoolchildren, as well as the destruction of schools. “Everything more often becomes a source of crisis,” Elder noted.
He told how accompanied schoolchildren on the way to school, trying to help them avoid attacks.
“It’s interesting to watch them walk… They don’t walk in a straight line because they’re always looking back in fear,” he noted. a “sharp increase” in the number of arrests and detentions of Palestinian children in the occupied territories. According to him, there are currently 347 minors in Israeli military prisons accused of security crimes, the highest number in the last eight years.
“What is particularly alarming is that more than half of them children – are being held in administrative detention without due process guarantees, including regular access to a lawyer and the opportunity to challenge the detention,” he said.
The situation in Gaza
Meanwhile in Gaza, Elder said, since the October 2025 ceasefire, the UN has documented the deaths of at least 229 children and the injuries of another 260.
World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territories Reinhilde van de Weerdt told reporters that about 10,000 children in the Gaza Strip had suffered permanent injuries will change their lives.
In total, of the approximately 172,000 people injured in Gaza since October 2023, about 43,000 suffered severe injuries to the limbs, spine or brain. Nearly 2,500 people have been injured since the ceasefire in October 2025.
According to the WHO, of the 2,277 amputees, less than a quarter received permanent prosthetics due to severe shortages of necessary supplies and equipment.
Speaking from Jerusalem, van de Weerdt said that At least 18 shipments of rehabilitation equipment, including wheelchairs and prosthetics, are awaiting entry into Gaza. The waiting period ranges from 130 days to more than a year.
In total, according to WHO estimates, more than 50 thousand victims need long-term rehabilitation, but not a single rehabilitation center is currently functioning in the Gaza Strip.
“Every day when rehabilitation services in Gaza remain inaccessible and without the necessary resources, increases the risk that preventable disabilities will become permanent,” the WHO representative emphasized.