US EditionChild casualties from explosive weapons at record high
Save the Children reports explosive weapons caused over 70% of child casualties in 2024, with total deaths and injuries rising 42% since 2020 to nearly 12,000.
- On Thursday, Save the Children published a report citing UN statistics that around 12,000 children were killed or injured last year, the highest since records began in 2006.
- With wars moving into urban areas, children are trapped as bombs and drones hit hospitals, schools and residential areas in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Sudan, Burma, Ukraine and Syria, shifting from deaths by malnutrition or disease.
- Save the Children found more than 70% of children who died in conflict zones in 2024 were killed by explosive weapons, with children’s smaller bodies increasing vulnerability, according to the report.
- Gaza emerged as the deadliest recent conflict for children, with 20,000 killed since October 2023, as photographs from northern Gaza on November 19, 2025, show Palestinian children amid ruins.
- In stark terms, Save the Children's senior conflict and humanitarian advocacy advisor Narmina Strishenets said `The world is witnessing the deliberate destruction of childhood, and the evidence is undeniable`, and she added, `Children are paying the highest price in today’s wars... Missiles are falling where children sleep, play, and learn, turning places that should be the safest, such as their homes and schools, into death traps`.
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11 Articles
Explosive weapons push child death toll to record levels worldwide, including in Syria
Last year, around 12,000 children were killed in conflicts around the world, marking the highest toll since 2006, as wars increasingly took place in urban areas. A UN report noted that more than 70% of child victims in 2024 died from explosive weapons, particularly in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and Syria.
Some 11,967 children were killed or injured in 2024 in conflict zones; 70 per cent of them were killed by air bombs or mines, says the NGO Save the Children. The wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine are among the deadliest for the youngest.
Explosive Weapons Killed Most Children On Record In 2024: Report - Iran Front Page
Explosive weapons killed or injured children at record levels last year, as wars increasingly move into urban areas, Save the Children announced in a report published Thursday.
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