STORY: :: Near Ramallah, West Bank / April 22, 2026
This was the funeral of 14-year-old Aws al-Naasan in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
At least seventy children have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since early 2025, UNICEF said on Tuesday.
That's a rate of about one child killed a week.
"Children are paying an intolerable price for escalating military operations and settler attacks across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
:: Al Mughayyir, West Bank / June 24, 2025
Ninety-three percent of the children were killed by Israeli forces, in what amounted to a pattern of crimes, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said.
The rest were victims of settler attacks, unexploded ordnance or accidental hits by Palestinian forces, he said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"And we're seeing attacks become increasingly coordinated. So documented incidents include children shot, stabbed, children beaten, and children pepper sprayed. Now, these are not isolated incidents. They point to a sustained pattern of the worst kind of violations against children, as well as attacks on children's homes, on their schools and on the water that they rely on."
Human rights groups have described a renewed surge in violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers and soldiers since 2023.
The United Nations and most countries deem Israel's settlements on West Bank land captured in the 1967 war illegal, which Israel disputes.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which staunchly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, has accelerated settlement building.
European governments have also raised concern about rising settler violence, on Monday agreeing new sanctions targeting violent Israeli settlers, as well as leading figures from Hamas.
