The Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, which led to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, as well as war crimes in the occupied West Bank, the United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry announced today, Reuters reports.
The report of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, examined violations of the rights of Palestinian children since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Hamas movement on October 7, 2023.
The report states that it was determined that about 30 percent of those who died in the war in Gaza were children.
The commission’s previous report in September alleged that Israel committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, encouraged the acts – accusations that Israel called scandalous.
Israel’s mission in Geneva said Israel rejects what it called the commission’s “second defamatory activist report.”
“Israel rejects this defamatory farce,” the statement said, adding that “every child deserves protection” and claiming that the report ignored the “brutal tactics of Hamas.”
The UN commission said Palestinian children were deliberately targeted and killed during the war, including after the ceasefire came into effect in October 2025. She stated that this was a key element in establishing the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part, in Gaza.
“The evidence shows that Israeli security forces deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children,” Srinivasan Muralidhar, the commission’s chairman, said in a statement accompanying the report.
Death of children
The report states that it was determined that the proportion of children killed was higher than in previous conflicts. Between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2025, at least 20,179 children were killed, which is about 30 percent of the total number of deaths.
By comparison, during the hostilities in Gaza in 2008–2009. and in 2014, children accounted for approximately 24 percent of conflict-related casualties, according to the report.
Israeli forces continued to use high-destruction munitions and wide-area weapons in densely populated residential areas, despite the increasing number of child casualties, the commission said.
“This indicates that such attacks, in which such a large number of children were killed, were intentional,” the report states.
The commission said it believed the children were collectively targeted because Israeli security forces believed the civilian population as a whole was affiliated with Hamas and other armed groups.
The response shared by the Israeli mission in Geneva states that Israel “consistently strives to minimize harm to children, even in conflict situations” and that Israel “strongly” rejects the claim that it deliberately targets children.
Muralidhar said that by targeting children, Israel is undermining the ability of the Palestinian people to survive and decide their own future.
The conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza, including widespread attacks, repeated displacement and starvation caused by the blockade of aid, food and medicine, have severely damaged children’s health and development, leading to preventable deaths and trauma, the report said.
The investigation also found that attacks on health and reproductive facilities affected infant survival and recorded an increase in spontaneous abortions, and that almost all children in Gaza were reported to be in need of psychological support.
Israel’s response stated that the report did not mention Israel’s role in facilitating vaccinations and the entry of medical personnel, nor the establishment of Polish hospitals. Israel has accused Hamas of systematically diverting humanitarian aid and fuel intended for hospitals. Hamas has rejected such accusations.
West coast
In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Commission found a sharp increase in Israeli settler violence against Palestinian children and documented evidence of torture, including sexual and gender-based violence, during mass arrests and detentions.
She stated that Palestinian children, especially boys, were subjected to systematic abuse in detention, including forced stripping, beatings and deprivation of food.
The Commission concluded that such treatment constitutes crimes against humanity, ie torture and other inhuman acts that cause great suffering or serious injuries.
Israel’s response stated that the report’s findings on the West Bank omitted the context of the “ongoing terrorist threat” to which Israel claims Israeli security forces were responding.
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