UN keeps Israel on child-rights blacklist as Gaza war drives global violations higher

# UN keeps Israel on child-rights blacklist as Gaza war drives global violations higher

The United Nations has kept Israel on its blacklist of countries accused of grave violations against children in armed conflict, a move tied to the continuing war in Gaza and a broader report that said such abuses reached unprecedented levels in 2024.

According to the evidence packet, the annual Children and Armed Conflict report found a 25 percent global rise in grave violations against children compared with 2023. It said the UN verified 41,370 violations in total, including killing and maiming, sexual violence, and attacks on schools and hospitals.

The report singled out the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel as the place where the highest number of verified violations occurred. It said 8,554 grave violations were recorded against 2,959 children there, including 1,259 Palestinian children killed and 941 wounded in Gaza, plus 97 children killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The packet also says the UN has been verifying additional cases in Gaza, where the Gaza Health Ministry has reported much higher death tolls. That distinction is important: the report is based on independently verified incidents, not the full raw figures reported by local authorities.

Israel’s inclusion for a second year is politically significant because the blacklist is intended to flag parties responsible for severe harm to children in war zones. The report also listed the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad again, which shows the UN is recording abuses by multiple actors in the conflict.

Beyond the Gaza war, the report said the sharpest year-on-year increase in violations came in Lebanon, followed by Mozambique, Haiti, Ethiopia and Ukraine. That broader context matters because it underscores that the crisis is not confined to one battlefield, even if Gaza accounted for the largest concentration of verified abuse.

The evidence packet does not show an Israeli response to the report at the time of publication, and it does not suggest the listing itself changes the legal status of the war. But it does show that UN chief António Guterres said he was appalled by the intensity of grave violations in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel.

For a straight report, the key facts are that the UN kept Israel on its blacklist, said violations against children reached unprecedented levels in 2024, and tied the highest concentration of verified abuse to Gaza and the occupied West Bank.