UN inquiry says Israel deliberately targeted Gaza children

GENEVA: An independent United Nations inquiry said on Tuesday that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, concluding that their actions in Gaza amounted to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, while also documenting war crimes in the occupied West Bank.

The findings were set out in a report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. The commission examined violations against Palestinian children since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, 2023.

Children accounted for about 30% of those killed in the Gaza war. Between October 7, 2023, and October 7, 2025, at least 20,179 children were killed. According to the commission, that share was higher than in earlier Gaza conflicts, when children made up about 24% of conflict-related fatalities in the 2008-2009 and 2014 hostilities.

A previous report by the same commission in September had found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza and that senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, incited those acts. Israel had rejected those accusations at the time as scandalous.

Commission findings

The commission said Palestinian children were deliberately targeted and killed during the war, including after a ceasefire came into effect in October 2025. Formed a key part of its conclusion that Israeli authorities and security forces acted with genocidal intent to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part, in Gaza.

In a statement issued with the report, commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said:

"The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces"

Israeli forces continued using high-payload munitions and weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated residential neighbourhoods despite rising child casualties. The commission said this indicated such attacks, which killed children in very high numbers, were intentional. It believed children were targeted collectively because Israeli security forces viewed the civilian population as a whole as being associated with Hamas and other armed groups.

Muralidhar also said that by targeting children, Israel was damaging the Palestinian people’s ability to survive and shape their future.

Impact on health and survival

The inquiry said conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza, including widespread attacks, repeated displacement and starvation caused by the blockade on aid, food and medicine, severely harmed children’s health and development, causing preventable deaths and trauma.

It also found that attacks on healthcare and reproductive facilities affected the survival of newborns and that miscarriages had increased. Nearly all children in Gaza were said to need psychological support.

Israel rejects report

Israel’s mission in Geneva rejected what it called the commission’s second defamatory advocacy report. In a statement, it said:

"Israel dismisses this libellous sham."

The mission added that every child deserves protection and argued that the report ignored what it described as the brutal tactics of Hamas.

In a rebuttal shared by the mission, Israel said it consistently seeks to reduce harm to children even during conflict and rejected in the strongest terms the allegation that it deliberately targets children.

It further accused Hamas of systematically diverting humanitarian aid and fuel meant for hospitals, an allegation Hamas has denied.

West Bank findings

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the commission said it found a sharp rise in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children. It also documented evidence of torture, including sexual and gender-based violence, during mass arrests and detention.

Palestinian children, especially boys, were subjected to systematic mistreatment in detention, including forced stripping, beatings and deprivation of food. The commission concluded that this treatment amounted to the crimes against humanity of torture and other inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious injury.

Israel’s rebuttal said the report’s findings on the West Bank left out what it called the context of a constant terrorist threat to which Israeli security forces were responding.