Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
UNICEF has reported a rise in coordinated attacks against children in the occupied West Bank, including shootings, stabbings, beatings, and pepper-spraying. Since January 2025, approximately 70 children have been killed and over 850 injured, mostly by live ammunition. March 2026 saw the highest number of Palestinians injured by settler violence in 20 years, according to UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.
Mr. Elder recounted meeting an eight-year-old boy hospitalized with head injuries after being beaten with a piece of wood in a settler attack. The boy’s mother sustained two broken arms while protecting her four-month-old baby during the assault. Education-related attacks are also increasing, including killings, injuries, detentions of students, and school demolitions, turning schools into places of fear rather than safety.
There has been a sharp rise in the detention of Palestinian children by Israeli military authorities, with 347 children currently held for alleged security-related offenses—the highest number in eight years. More than half (180 children) are held under administrative detention without regular access to legal counsel or the right to challenge their detention.
In Gaza, UNICEF reports that since the October 2025 ceasefire, at least 229 children have been killed and 260 injured. The UN World Health Organization's representative noted that around 10,000 children in Gaza suffer from life-altering injuries, including trauma affecting limbs, spinal cords, or brains. Overall, approximately 43,000 of the 172,000 injured in Gaza since October 2023 have sustained such severe injuries.