Pakistan warns AI, drone warfare fueling attacks on Palestinian children in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS: As violations against children in armed conflict reached record levels in 2025, Pakistan told the UN Security Council that the “dehumanization of military technology” – including unmanned aerial drones and the integration of AI with weapons systems – has further exposed children to frequent and unprecedented attacks.

Speaking at in a debate on ‘Children and Armed Conflict’, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, described as “appalling” the more 12,000 incidents of grave violations of against children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, outlined in the report presented by Vanessa Frazier, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, who called for accountability.

Ambassador Jadoon also underscored the need for measures to safeguard children, including by oversight and ending impunity for violators; protection of schools from attacks and military use; and reinforcement of safe education systems in conflict zones.

The debate — organized by Colombia, Council President for June — sought to reaffirm the special protections afforded to children under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, amid widespread non-compliance with those frameworks.

The report, produced annually, reflects that failure, detailing the worsening impact of war on children.

Civilians — and far too often, children — continue to bear the brunt of conflict. In 2025, the UN verified 38,558 grave violations against children — affecting 24,174 children — the highest since the establishment of her office’s mandate 30 years ago.

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The mandate for the Special Representative was created by a General Assembly resolution, following Graca Machel’s landmark 1996 report “Impact of Armed Conflict on Children”, which warned that children were no longer merely bystanders to war, but its targets.

That warning remains “painfully relevant” today, Ms. Frazier said.

The report is “an indictment of inaction”, Ms. Frasier said. The highest verified numbers of violations in 2025 were in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Myanmar and Somalia. “The protection of children is not optional,” she declared. The Council and the wider UN membership bear collective responsibility to uphold international humanitarian law.

Palestine’s Deputy Permanent Observer Majed Bamya said the report on children in armed conflict reflects a “horrific reality.”

Some of the highest numbers of verified violations against children occurred in Palestine, revealing “how persistent Israel is in inflicting suffering on Palestinian families and children”, he said, citing targeted attacks, strikes on hospitals and the deprivation of basic humanitarian and medical aid.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian children have been killed and injured and almost a million have been displaced or separated from their families, inflicting severe psychosocial effects that will be felt by an entire generation.

“I am stunned [that] Israel can deny these crimes when its soldiers confirm them, when its leaders call for their perpetration, and when videos were filmed by the victims and even by the perpetrators,” he said.

Israel also denies the sexual violence that led to its listing, for the first time, in that category of offenses in the Secretary-General’s report, even when its soldiers confessed to using rape as a weapon of war, he said.

Against that backdrop, the Palestinian envoy demanded that the Council ensure full compliance with the terms of the ceasefire and prevent violations against all children, no matter the perpetrator.