GENEVA, May 13. /TASS/. Almost 350 Palestinian children from the West Bank are being held in Israeli military detention centers on security-related charges, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Spokesperson James Elder said.
"The latest data indicates 347 Palestinian children from the West Bank are being held in Israeli military detention for alleged security-related offenses — the highest number in eight years," he pointed out at a briefing in Geneva.
According to Elder, more than half of these children "are held under administrative detention and without the required procedural safeguards, including detention without regular access to legal counsel and the right to challenge the detention."
Moreover, 70 Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank since the beginning of 2025, with 93% of them dead at the hands of Israeli soldiers, the UNICEF spokesperson emphasized, adding that another 850 children had been injured. Elder also pointed to an unprecedented rise in attacks by Jewish settlers. "March 2026 saw the highest number of Palestinians injured by settler attacks in the past 20 years," he specified.
The official strongly condemned attacks on schools, homes, health and water supply facilities. He added that "in the first four months of this year, more than 2,500 Palestinians, including 1,100 children, have been displaced, surpassing the total displacement recorded in all of 2025."
The West Bank is one of the two Palestinian territories, with the other being the Gaza Strip. The territory has been under Israeli control since 1967. The UN deems Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the continued establishment of Jewish settlements as illegal.
In October 2023, Israeli settlers began to actively expand their presence in the West Bank. According to the Israeli non-governmental organization Peace Now, more than 130 new settlements have been built since tensions started to escalate again, which is more than in the previous 20 years. Notably, most of these settlements were not authorized by the Israeli authorities.