U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday that Israeli settler groups could be added to a global blacklist for violations against children, voicing alarm at a "staggering" rise in violations against Palestinian children.
The United Nations' annual report on Children and Armed Conflict recorded 38,558 "grave violations" globally in 2024, affecting 24,174 children, a record since the report's mandate began in 1996.
The data showed 14,224 children killed or maimed, with a 34% rise in the number killed to 6,266 compared to the previous year. The U.N. verified the killing of 2,668 Palestinian children in Gaza and 57 in the West Bank.
The Gaza war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures. Israel responded with a large-scale military campaign that has since killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
"Countries with the highest levels of violations in 2024 were the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Myanmar, and Somalia," a senior U.N. official said in a briefing on the report.
