With conflicts raging in Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine, violence against children in armed conflicts reached "extreme levels" in 2023, according to a new U.N. report.
The United Nations' annual Children in Armed Conflict report, obtained Tuesday by major news agencies, reported a 21% increase in grave violations against children.
For the first time, the U.N. report put Israeli forces on its blacklist of countries that violate children's rights for the killing and maiming of children and attacking schools and hospitals.
Israel's massive military operation in Gaza has led to a 155% increase in grave violations against children, especially from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas in Gaza, said the report by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The U.N. also added to the blacklist Palestinian resistance groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad for the Oct. 7 incursion of Israel.
It placed the Sudanese army as well as the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the blacklist for "the killing and maiming of children, and for attacks on schools and hospitals."
"In 2023, violence against children in armed conflict reached extreme levels, with a shocking 21% increase in grave violations," said the report, which is due to be published on Thursday.
The U.N. verified 30,705 violations committed against children last year, including 5,301 killings, 6,348 injuries, 8,655 instances of children recruited and used in conflicts, 5,205 denials of humanitarian access and 4,356 kidnappings.
"We've never verified so many violations against children as last year," said a senior U.N. official speaking on condition of anonymity.
In 2023, "children bore the brunt of multiplying and escalating crises that were marked by a complete disregard for child rights, notably the inherent right to life," the report said.
The report confirmed the deaths of over 2,141 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip in 2023, with 2,051 killed between Oct. 7 and Dec. 31.
It also verified that 43 Israeli children were killed in Israel and the West Bank during the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion and a total of 47 Israeli children were abducted by the Palestinian groups.
Over 23,000 reports of grave violations against children – 3,900 Israeli children and 19,887 Palestinian children – by all parties to the conflict had yet to be verified.
"It will take a long, long time to verify," said the U.N. official.
Israel reacted angrily when the news of its inclusion on the blacklist was leaked last week, with the country's U.N. ambassador Gilad Erdan saying he was "shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision."
As for Sudan, it has seen "a staggering 480% increase in grave violations against children" against children from 2022 to 2023, the report said.
The RSF paramilitary force was listed for recruiting children and for "rape and other forms of sexual violence against children," as well as attacks on schools and hospitals.
"I am appalled by the dramatic increase in grave violations," Guterres wrote in the report, also noting a rise in ethnically motivated attacks and mass displacement of children in Sudan.
Covering some 20 conflict zones worldwide, the report includes the killing, injuring, recruitment, kidnapping and sexual violence against children.
It verified 30,705 "grave violations" committed last year, including during the war in Gaza.
The Russian army and "affiliated armed groups," remained on the blacklist for killing 80 children in Ukraine in 2023 and injuring 339.
