Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has said Israeli forces killed 54 Palestinian children and teenagers in the occupied West Bank during 2025, marking the highest annual toll since Israel occupied the territory in 1967.
According to the rights group, Israeli forces killed 1,086 Palestinians in the West Bank between October 7, 2023, and June 28, 2026. Of those, 241 victims — nearly one in four — were children.
B’Tselem, which documents human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories, said it was not aware of a single indictment filed in Israel since October 2023 over the killing of Palestinians in the West Bank, including cases involving children.
“The widespread, unprecedented killing of Palestinian children and teenagers in the West Bank is the result of a broader Israeli policy that enables the killing of Palestinians with virtually no accountability,” B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak said.
“When the military commander of the area boasts that Israel is killing Palestinians ‘like we haven’t killed since 1967,’ he is confirming exactly that: the system does not merely back those who pull the trigger, it effectively grants them a license to kill,” Novak added.
The report also found that in nearly one-quarter of the documented cases in 2025, Israeli forces delayed or prevented medical teams from reaching wounded Palestinian minors.
B’Tselem further said Israel is withholding the bodies of 18 of the 54 Palestinian children killed in the West Bank during 2025.