The Israeli military has deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children to commit a genocide, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry said on Tuesday.
The Israeli forces have killed more than 20,000 children and injured 44,000 since October 2023, the commission said.
The panel, established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a report that the scale and nature of military operations had resulted in “unprecedented death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children”.
“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,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, the chair of the commission.
The panel found that Palestinian children had been arrested and subjected to torture and other forms of mistreatment in detention facilities, and said that there had been no information about the whereabouts of some detainees.
It also alleged that sexual violence had been used against children as part of the “collective shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered, and intergenerational pattern of Israeli occupation and hostilities”.
The commission said that while the damage to neonatal and maternity care centres had hurt the newborn survival and reproductive health, starvation caused by the Israeli blockade and siege had contributed to child deaths and worsening health conditions.
It also said that orphanages and education facilities in Gaza and the West Bank had been destroyed or dismantled, disrupting children’s development and access to care.
The commission said that psychological harm among children was widespread and long-lasting, describing it as “occupied psyche” in which children had been deprived of the freedom to play, imagine, hope and develop an identity.
“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” Muralidhar said. “The destruction of their health, education and development is irreversible.”
He further stated that targeting children hurt the broader structure and future of Palestinian society, including its demographic and social foundations. “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future,” he stated.
The commission called on Israel to stop violations that hurt Palestinian children and end its presence in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in line with an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.
It also called on UN member states to ensure accountability for the alleged crimes.
On Tuesday, Israel rejected the findings and described the report a “propaganda piece”.
The Israeli foreign ministry described the commission as “a fundamentally flawed mechanism” intended to “single out and vilify Israel rather than seek the truth”.
It said the report ignored Israeli children killed or kidnapped by Palestinian militant group Hamas and accused the commission of lacking credible verification methods. “Israel utterly rejects this latest libelous sham,” Tel Aviv said.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza since then, leaving more than 75,000 persons dead.
In September, the UN’s commission of inquiry said that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel’s foreign ministry had rejected the report, describing it as “distorted and false”.
The International Criminal Court had in November 2024 issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of committing war crimes in Gaza.
Written by Sara Varghese. Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.
Also read:
- Opinion: Could India be considered complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza?
- India’s discernible shift away from Palestine
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