Analysis of data on demolitions and displacement collected by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) showed 607 children were among over 1,200 people displaced in the first half of 2025 in the West Bank including East Jerusalem. This was up from 542 during the same period in 2024 and 328 in the first half of 2023. [1]
Since 7 October 2023, there has been a sharp increase in displacement of Palestinian families due to the destruction of homes by Israeli authorities which has impacted more than 2,850 children.
According to OCHA data, more than 10,300 children have been displaced in the West Bank since records began in 2009 due to demolition of their homes. Of those nearly 80% of cases, or 8,200 children, were due to the fact their homes were built without Israeli-issued permits which are almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain.[3]
This is part of a long-standing, systematic policy to annex parts of the West Bank. Israeli authorities are using demolitions, land seizures and legal changes to force Palestinians from their homes and expand settlements, according to Save the Children's reports.[4]
Home demolitions are one of the key drivers of the displacement of over 38,000 Palestinians across the West Bank since October 2023. However, about 75% of those displaced - more than 29,000 people - were forced to flee due to large-scale Israeli military raids in the northern West Bank,[2] including thousands of children.
Palestinians in refugee camps in the northern cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas, are facing the most intense operations by Israeli forces in two decades. So far this year, Israeli forces have killed at least 420 people, injured a further 950 with airstrikes and live ammunition, and destroyed over 900 properties, according to OCHA.
About 2,400 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, have been displaced by Israeli settlers since October 2023, according to the UN Human Rights Office. Settler attacks have also killed at least two Palestinian children since October 2023 and injured dozens, with reports of kidnapping.
Mona,* 12, lives in rural Hebron, under constant threats of settler violence, said:
"On the last nights of Ramadan, I prepared my Eid clothes, arranged them, and put them in my closet. Even though Eid is almost non-existent here due to the occupation, which could enter the village at any moment and destroy our joy, I wasn't ready for that. The settlers entered village, destroyed it, and [the Israeli forces] took my father to prison, along with all the men in the village. He disappeared for hours. I remember that day very well when we broke our fast after a long day of fasting without my father. But the harassment didn't end there. They returned at night, destroyed the house, and smashed everything in sight. My Eid clothes fell to the ground, and with them, my joy."
Save the Children's Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, Ahmad Alhendawi, said:
"Israeli authorities' policies and practices are choking daily life for Palestinians in the West Bank. Children's homes are being demolished, their futures shattered, their lives torn apart. No child should grow up under the constant threat of violence, forced displacement or military detention. This is a child rights crisis, overshadowed by even greater violence in Gaza. But the monstrous scale and severity in Gaza doesn't make lesser violence acceptable - or erase legal obligations. Violations are violations. Children are children.
For decades, Israeli forces and settlers have terrorised Palestinian families with near impunity. Since the war in Gaza began, violence in the West Bank has surged. There is no war in the West Bank, yet record numbers of children are displaced, assaulted, imprisoned, and killed. The international community cannot claim ignorance. Its silence is enabling these attacks on children. It must end."
Save the Children has been working in the occupied Palestinian territory since 1953, working with partners to provide education, mental health support, and humanitarian assistance to children and their families.
As the situation for Palestinian children in the West Bank worsens, Save the Children is continuing its long-term work while also stepping up support to meet growing needs. In response to mass displacement caused by military operations and settler violence, we are prioritising the delivery of essential items and cash support to families, providing mental health care for children, caregivers and frontline workers, and creating safe spaces where children can play and learn.
