UN Commission Says Israel Deliberately Targets Palestinian Children in Gaza, Alleging Genocide

A UN commission of inquiry says Israel has deliberately targeted Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, alleging genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and it says the killings continued even after last October's ceasefire in Gaza.

The BBC reports the commission says it has reasonable grounds to conclude the acts "form part of a deliberate strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children".

Ahram Online

The BBC also says Israel's foreign ministry "utterly rejects" the commission's report, calling it a "libellous sham" and "a propaganda piece as outrageous as its previous ones."

The BBC links the commission's findings to the wider war that began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

The BBC adds that at least 73,035 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including more than 21,280 children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

The commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said the "intense scale and systematic nature" of Israeli military operations in Gaza had continued, resulting in "unprecedented death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children."

In the BBC account, Muralidhar warned that "Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured," while Israel continues to disregard the ceasefire and protections owed to Palestinian children under international law.

Al Jazeera

The BBC says the report alleges Israeli attacks targeted children directly by shooting at their vital organs using precision weapons, including quadcopter drones and snipers, and by using high-impact weapons in strikes on residential buildings, schools, and displacement camps crowded with children.

The BBC also says the report accuses Israel of using starvation as a method of war and warns that restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza have "produced acute and chronic malnutrition among children in Gaza."

The BBC further reports that the commission says Israeli attacks on neonatal and paediatric hospitals in Gaza have "systematically dismantled children's access to life-sustaining care."

While the UN report centers on Gaza, TRT World describes ongoing Israeli raids and illegal settler attacks across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where it says the Israeli army arrested 11 Palestinians early on Wednesday.

TRT World says eight Palestinians were injured in illegal settler attacks on homes and property in the Hebron and Nablus governorates, and it quotes activist Osama Makhamra saying settlers in Yatta injured four Palestinians with pepper gas and uprooted about 60 trees.

TRT World also says Palestinians warn the attacks are paving the way for Israel to formally annex the occupied West Bank, which would end the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state under UN resolutions.

In the BBC, Israel's foreign ministry condemned the commission's report as a "fundamentally flawed mechanism whose very purpose is to single out and vilify Israel rather than seek the truth."

The BBC adds that the commission says it is also legally responsible for failing to protect Palestinian children from being targeted by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank, and it says it has documented incidents of sexual and gender-based violence targeting Palestinian children, often during arrests or in detention.