A United Nations commission of inquiry has released a new report stating that Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, as well as war crimes in the West Bank. These findings follow the commission's conclusion last year that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinian group in Gaza.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, found that the scale and systematic nature of Israeli military operations has continued, resulting in the unprecedented deaths, injuries and trauma of Palestinian children.
The report describes the deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian children, including since the ceasefire following the Gaza peace plan in October 2025. The Commission also examined the sharp increase in violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Since October 2023, Israeli military forces have killed at least 21,200 Palestinian children and injured more than 44,000 others in Gaza. These attacks have occurred in locations such as homes, shelters, hospitals, schools and aid distribution lines. Despite a nominal ceasefire in place since October 2025, the killings by Israeli security forces have continued, resulting in the death of at least 265 Palestinian children.
The Commission reiterates that the deliberate targeting of children is a key factor in establishing the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza, either wholly or in part.
“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, Chair of the Commission.
“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.”
Israeli authorities are legally obligated to uphold children's rights in all areas under their jurisdiction or control, including occupied territories.
The severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation and collapse of education and healthcare that children in Gaza have experienced will affect them throughout their lives.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 10,000 children in Gaza live with life-changing injuries and lack access to prosthetics or rehabilitation care. They remain unable to receive essential treatment due to extreme shortages of medical supplies and rehabilitation equipment across the enclave.
The Commission found that Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, and that there is no information on their whereabouts.
Additionally, Israeli security forces have used sexual violence against children as part of a pattern of collective shaming and oppression entrenched within the prolonged ethnic, gendered and intergenerational Israeli occupation and hostilities.
The Commission also determined that Israel’s attacks on neonatal and maternity care centers in Gaza have directly harmed newborn survival and Palestinians’ reproductive future. These attacks have resulted in increased miscarriages, birth defects, and lasting vulnerabilities among newborns, destroying Palestinian newborn life and threatening the continuity of the population.
Overall, the Commission examined how the conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza have resulted in the preventable deaths of children, exacerbated morbidity, and caused serious mental trauma from relentless and widespread attacks over the past two years. These attacks have collectively revealed severe, multi-layered harm to the survival, health, and development of Palestinian children.
The report found that starvation imposed by Israel through blockade and siege has further caused the death of Palestinian children and severely impacted the health of many others by depriving them of essential nutrition and increasing disease risks amid reduced immunization, food insecurity, and destroyed health services.
The dismantling and destruction of orphanages and educational facilities in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has obstructed children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, disrupting the foundations of Palestinian society.
“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” said Muralidhar.
“The destruction of their health, education and development is irreversible.”
The Commission stated that by targeting children, Israel is undermining the foundation of Palestinian society, weakening its demographic vitality and overall capacity to sustain and exercise its right to self-determination.
“The protection, care and survival of Palestinian children are inseparable from the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” said Muralidhar.
“By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.”
The Commission calls for Israel to cease committing all violations and crimes against Palestinian children. It further calls for an end to Israel’s presence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in compliance with the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) advisory opinion.
The Commission has identified military units within the Israeli security forces that are responsible for the killing and injuring of Palestinian children, and it makes recommendations to Israel and all UN member states to ensure accountability for such atrocity crimes.
“The international community as a whole must uphold their international legal obligations and call for an end to the hostilities, for Israel to end its occupation and to prioritize accountability and access to justice for victims as an integral component of any political process, grounded in the meaningful participation of Palestinians, including children,” it said.
The report comes as Israeli military forces continue to kill civilians, including children, with impunity and a total lack of accountability in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli military operations and surging settler attacks in the occupied West Bank are also killing and maiming Palestinian children.
A previous report found that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed four categories of acts that constitute genocide in the Gaza Strip, intending to destroy the Palestinian group in whole or in part.
Three of these categories are particularly related to children: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life on the group that are calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part.
Several international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights; Israeli human rights organizations, such as B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel; independent human rights experts; and the world’s leading genocide scholars have also concluded that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute not only war crimes and crimes against humanity but also genocide against the Gaza population.
Against this backdrop, legal experts and humanitarian organizations worldwide are expressing growing concern about the continued lack of accountability for international atrocity crimes committed by Israeli military personnel and government officials.
Impunity for crimes committed since October 2023 persists, with profound political consequences. Governments around the world, particularly those providing military aid and political support to the Israeli government, have been implicating themselves in some of the worst crimes known to humankind.
Further information:
Full text: “The essence of childhood has been destroyed”: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023, Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (A/HRC/62/CRP.2) , report, published June 23, 2026
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session62/a-hrc-62-crp-2.pdf