UN Commission Says Israel Killed 20,000 Gaza Children, Injured 44,000 Since October 2023

A UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, said on Tuesday that Israel continues to commit genocide, atrocity crimes and war crimes by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza and by committing war crimes in the occupied West Bank.

UN Commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said, "The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces," and he added that even after the October 2025 ceasefire, "children continue to be killed and seriously injured".

Al Jazeera

The commission’s findings, as described by UN News, said Israel has killed 20,000 children and injured 44,000 more since 7 October 2023, and it said severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood.

Truthout’s account of the same UN inquiry said the report found that between the start of Israel’s military campaign in October 2023 and the "ceasefire" agreement in October 2025, more than 20,000 children were killed and more than 44,000 were injured, including more than 5,000 under the age of five and more than 1,000 under the age of one.

Truthout also quoted medical professionals testifying that they treated kids with "direct gunshot and sniper wounds, often to the head and abdomen," and it said one sample of 168 children killed by gunshots found 73 shot in the head and 22 shot in the chest.

At a press conference in Geneva, UN News reported Commissioner Chris Sidoti said, "There can be no doubt in anyone who reads today’s report that every international legal norm has been violated" by actions toward Palestinian children.

UN News described a case Sidoti said involved a 14-year-old boy who was shot by an Israeli military patrol as he was leaving his house, with Sidoti saying the boy "bled to death" while surrounded by Israeli soldiers who were "chatting" and "probably some of them smoking".

Al Jazeera

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry’s framing, as reported by Al Jazeera, was that the report found about 30 percent of people killed in Gaza since the start of the war were children, and it said Israel’s targeting of neonatal and maternity care centres directly endangered Palestinians’ reproductive future and newborn survival.

Al Jazeera also reported that the commission 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.

Middle East Eye’s account of the commission’s report said the evidence included a consistent pattern of children being shot with Israeli precision weapons, including by snipers and quadcopters, and it quoted Muralidhar saying, "Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured".

The UN inquiry’s conclusions, as described by The Independent, said Israeli forces continued to use high-payload munitions and weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated residential areas despite mounting child casualties, and it said the commission believed the attacks were part of a "deliberate strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza".

“- Commission of Inquiry finds specific intent in such acts to destroy Palestinians as a group ‘in whole or in part’ — the core definition of genocide in 1948 UN Genocide Convention - Chair of the commission, Justice Srinivasan Muralidhar, tells Arab News: ‘We are finding a whole trend where children are specifically being targeted by the Israeli forces’ A UN Commission of Inquiry has found that the killing of children and other harm inflicted on them has been central to Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, alongside a systematic pattern of war crimes and crimes against humanity that have affected young people in both Gaza and the West Bank since October 2023”

Arab News

The Independent also reported that Israel rejected the commission’s findings, quoting Israel’s mission in Geneva as saying, "Israel dismisses this libellous sham," and adding that "every child deserves protection".

In parallel, The Guardian reported that the Israeli mission in Geneva said Israel rejected the commission’s "libellous sham," and it said the commission found Palestinian children were deliberately targeted and killed during the war, including after a ceasefire came into effect in October 2025.

The Guardian further reported that the inquiry said this was "a key element in establishing genocidal intent" by Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza, and it said the commission also found a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In its own summary of the UN inquiry, TRT World said the commission charged that the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children was "a key factor in establishing" genocidal intent, and it added that the commission urged all UN member states, including Israel, to ensure accountability for crimes committed.