As a ceasefire falls on the Middle East, a UN report concludes Israel deliberately targeted Palestinian children in Gaza and accuses it of genocide and other crimes, prompting Israeli fury
A shock UN report has claimed Israel targeted Palestinian children in Gaza, accusing it of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes throughout the war in the Strip.
The probe by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry declared 30% of the people killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began were children. The report says Israeli forces: “…deliberately carried out acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children.”
It says Israeli forces continued to use high-payload munitions and weapons in densely populated areas during the war, despite mounting child casualties. In a report out today, the three-member investigation team, which does not speak for the UN, says: “This indicates that such attacks, which killed children in such high numbers, were intentional.”
And it concludes that Israeli attacks on Gaza’s hospitals have “systematically dismantled children’s access to life-sustaining care, undermining their survival as a protected group.”
The panel first concluded last September that Israel had committed “genocide” in the war in Gaza – an accusation which Israel flatly denied. In Tuesday’s follow-up report, they said the scale and nature of Israeli military operations had continued, resulting in the “unprecedented” death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children.
It said there were “reasonable grounds” to conclude that Israel’s authorities and security forces “have continued to commit the crime of genocide” in Gaza. Israel has always pointed to the fact that Hamas embedded its fighters and military infrastructure in homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Chairman of the commission Srinivasan Muralidhar said: “Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law. Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight. The destruction of their health, education and development is irreversible.”
Israel hits back at the report
He added: “The protection, care and survival of Palestinian children are inseparable from the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.” As many as 1,195 died in the October 7, 2023 Hamas atrocity which triggered war in Gaza, including civilians – among which were 36 children and 71 foreigners and at least 367 members of the security forces.
The panel has faced harsh Israeli criticism. Srinivasan Muralidhar, the commission’s chair, said in a statement: “The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces.”
The report adds that children in the West Bank and Gaza have been “arrested, tortured, and ill-treated in Israeli prisons and detention facilities”, and that it uncovered “incidents of sexual and gender-based violence targeting Palestinian children, often during arrests or in detention.” Israel’s mission in Geneva says it rejects what it calls the commission’s “second defamatory advocacy report.”
It adds: “Israel dismisses this libelous sham. Every child deserves protection” and asserting that the report ignored “the brutal tactics of Hamas,” which regularly operates from within dense civilian areas. Israel accuses Hamas of systematically diverting humanitarian aid and fuel for hospitals.”
‘Children continue to be killed’
Israel’s retaliatory response to the October 7 attacks from Gaza have, according to local authorities, killed more than 72,800 people. Muralidhar added: “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future. Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured.”
The commission, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, examined alleged crimes affecting Palestinian children, and how the situation imposed in Gaza caused the “preventable mortality of children.” It said: “Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.”
The commission said physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation, and the collapse of education and healthcare had “erased childhood.”
The report was revealed 24 hours after UN children’s agency UNICEF said at least 265 children had been killed and hundreds wounded in Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect.
