UN Commission Says Israel Deliberately Targets Palestinian Children in Gaza, Killing Them

A UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said in a report published on Tuesday that Israel continues to deliberately target and kill Palestinian children in Gaza, resulting in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank.

“A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israel continues to deliberately target and kill Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and war crimes in the occupied West Bank”

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The commission said the evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces, and it reported that about 30 percent of people killed in Gaza since the start of the war were children.

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The report also said Israel’s targeting of neonatal and maternity care centres during its war on Gaza directly endangered Palestinians’ reproductive future and the survival of newborns, driving a rise in miscarriages, birth defects and lasting vulnerabilities.

It further said Israel’s aid blockade in Gaza last year took a severe toll on Palestinian children, causing starvation-related deaths and a rise in disease as immunisation rates fell, while UNICEF data cited in the report said more than 50,000 children have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since the war began.

Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the commission, said, “The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” and added that “Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured”.

Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the inquiry’s findings, with the BBC reporting that Israel’s foreign ministry said it “utterly rejects” the commission’s report, calling it a “libellous sham” and “a propaganda piece as outrageous as its previous ones.”

The BBC also reported that the Israeli military launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

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In the same UN-backed dispute, CNN Arabic reported that the committee chair, Sreenivasan Muralidhar, said, “Even after the ceasefire in October 2025, children are still being killed and seriously injured,” while the Israeli Foreign Ministry described the report as “a vile propaganda piece on par with its predecessors.”

CNN Arabic quoted Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, saying, “Rather than addressing Hamas’s crimes, the October 7 massacre, the hostage issue, and Hamas’s use of children and civilians as human shields, the committee again put Israel in the dock.”

The BBC said the commission’s new report alleged that killings continued even after last October’s ceasefire in Gaza, and it described the commission’s view that the acts “form part of a deliberate strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children”.

The UN commission said its latest report found that Israel’s targeting of children was part of a deliberate strategy, and it warned that even if “the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” according to Srinivasan Muralidhar.

UN News said the commission’s report called for Israel to cease committing violations and crimes, and it described the inquiry’s findings that severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation and the collapse of education and healthcare had “erased childhood” in Gaza.

UN News also said the report described Palestinian children being arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, with “no information on their whereabouts,” and it said Israeli security forces used sexual violence against children as part of collective shaming and oppression.

The report further highlighted that attacks on neonatal and maternity care centres in Gaza harmed newborn survival and Palestinians’ reproductive future, while starvation imposed by Israel through blockade and siege caused death and severely impacted children’s health, according to UN News.

Commissioner Chris Sidoti said at a press conference in Geneva that “there can be no doubt in anyone who reads today’s report that every international legal norm has been violated by the actions of the Israeli authorities towards Palestinian children and they need to be held accountable,” and UN News described a case in which a 14-year-old boy “bled to death” after being shot by an Israeli military patrol.