Newsletters
United Nations investigators said Israel has deliberately targeted Palestinian children in the occupied Palestinian territory since Oct. 7, 2023, calling the conduct a key factor in what they described as an ongoing "genocide" in Gaza, in a report Israel rejected as defamatory.
The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said in a Conference Room Paper dated June 18 that it examined violations and crimes against Palestinian children between Oct. 7, 2023, and March 31, 2026, with a particular focus on Gaza.
The commission said it found evidence that "Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces."
It said this was a key factor in establishing "the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza."
The three-member independent commission, which does not speak on behalf of the U.N. itself, initially concluded in a September report that Israel had committed "genocide" during the Gaza war, a finding Israel firmly rejected.
In the follow-up report, the commission said the intense scale and systematic nature of Israel's military operations had continued, resulting in "unprecedented" death, injury and trauma among Palestinian children.
The investigators said there were "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Israeli authorities and security forces "have continued to commit the crime of genocide" in Gaza.
Israel, which has long criticized the commission, rejected the report as "defamatory" and a "libelous sham."
It accused the investigators of ignoring "the brutal tactics of Hamas, which ruthlessly attacks Israeli children and uses Palestinian children as human shields."
The commission said it had sent 13 requests for information or access to the Israeli government since Oct. 7, 2023, but received no response. It also said the State of Palestine and the Health Ministry in Gaza provided information to the commission.
The commission said the report presents new and expanded findings on intentional targeting, arrests and ill-treatment, sexual and gender-based violence, attacks on educational and health care facilities, and conditions imposed in the occupied Palestinian territory that directly affect children.
The report also said the commission had previously presented findings on violations and abuses against Israeli children committed by Hamas' military wing and other Palestinian armed groups on and since Oct. 7, 2023.
In those previous findings, the commission said Israeli children were subjected to physical and emotional mistreatment on Oct. 7, when 40 children were killed and hundreds were injured.
It said many children lost one or both parents, witnessed the killings of parents and siblings, and were filmed for propaganda purposes by Palestinian armed groups.
The commission said Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including against Israeli children and child hostages.
The commission, established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2021, examined crimes affecting Palestinian children and living conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza that it said were "resulting in preventable mortality of children."
"Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, and war crimes in the West Bank," the commission said in a statement.
The report said severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacement, starvation, and the collapse of education and health care had "erased childhood" in Gaza.
It said those conditions would continue to affect Gaza's children throughout their lives.
"By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future," said Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the inquiry.
"Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured," he said.
The report came days after the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said at least 265 children had been killed and hundreds more wounded in Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect.
UNICEF said children had been shot, bombed and struck by quadcopters, and killed in tents, schools and while playing football or fishing.
2 min read
The Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory response in Gaza has killed more than 72,800 people, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The U.N. inquiry said that during the first two years of the war, at least 20,179 children were killed and 44,143 injured "as a direct result of the hostilities in Gaza."
It said children accounted for 30% of those killed and 26% of those injured during that period.
The report said at least 5,031 children under the age of 5 were killed, including 1,029 children under age 1 and around 420 newborns.
The commission said the number of children killed and injured in Gaza was "certainly higher" than reported, adding that unknown numbers of children were buried in unmarked graves or were missing.
It said Save the Children estimated that about 5,160 children were buried under the rubble.
The commission linked the rise in child casualties, in part, to Israel's use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects and what it described as an expansion of targeting criteria without adequate precautions.
The report said Israeli military operations in Gaza had been marked by the extensive use of explosive weapons and heavy munitions with wide-area destructive capacity in residential areas.
The killing and maiming of Palestinian children "was part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group in Gaza," the commission said.
The report said that by targeting children, "Israel is eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, weakening the demographic vitality."
It said Israel was responsible for causing a "severe orphan crisis," while wounded children "face a lifetime of disability."
The report described disability as "a defining demographic reality" among Gaza's children.
It also said the siege of Gaza "directly undermined reproductive and newborn health," while the collapse of public health programs "eroded the conditions necessary for a healthy next generation."
The commission said it examined the use of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, against Palestinian children, particularly during mass arrests and detention.
It also examined attacks on health care facilities, educational facilities and orphanages, as well as the impact of displacement and siege on children's conditions of life in Gaza.
The report listed Israeli divisions, brigades and units that may be responsible for killing children in specific incidents in Gaza and the West Bank.
The commission also documented a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
The commission urged all U.N. member states, including Israel, to ensure accountability for the crimes committed.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
