“By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future,” said the commission’s head.
Approximately 30% of those killed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, 2023, have been children, a United Nations inquiry reported on Tuesday. The investigation concluded that the intentional targeting of children has contributed to a genocide against the Palestinians.
The report, produced by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, builds on a conclusion reached in September that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to genocide.
The commission stated, “The deliberate targeting of children is one of the key elements establishing genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part, in Gaza.”
From the launch of Israel’s military operation in October 2023 until the “ceasefire” agreement in October 2025, over 20,000 children were reported killed, with more than 44,000 sustaining injuries. Among the deceased were over 5,000 children under the age of five, more than 1,000 infants below one year, and upwards of 400 newborns.
The report documents verified cases where Israeli forces shot children directly. Medical professionals recounted treating pediatric victims suffering from “direct gunshot and sniper wounds, often to the head and abdomen.” In one sample of 168 children fatally shot, 73 sustained head wounds and 22 chest wounds, which the commission interpreted as evidence of deliberate targeting.
“Based on the clustering of injuries and the targeted body parts, I assess that the Israeli soldiers have been deliberately shooting teenage boys in a game of target practice—a different body part being targeted on different days… There is a very clear pattern that suggests this is a deliberate aiming of different body parts [of children],” a physician explained to the commission.
The report also references numerous incidents where children were singled out by snipers and drone attacks. An anonymous Israeli soldier featured in a documentary described piloting drones “like a video game.”
He stated, “The drones, in my opinion, are what most dehumanize the other side. You see everything on a screen. You drop the bomb. It feels like a game. You can sit in some basement of a house, safe, with your helmet off, scratching your balls, half-dressed, and kill Palestinians.”
The report challenges Israel’s claims that children’s deaths in airstrikes were accidental collateral damage. Instead, it argues these fatalities were predictable outcomes of Israel’s deployment of high-yield weapons in highly populated zones, resulting in substantial civilian casualties.
“These deliberate attacks wiped out entire families across two or three or even four generations, with the Israeli security forces fully aware that children would be present and that children, with their small, fragile bodies, have a higher chance of death and serious injury in such attacks,” the report stated.
“The Israeli security forces continued and repeated these attacks over a two-year period, without amending targeting criteria or selection of weapons, while child casualties mounted,” it added. “This indicates that such attacks, which killed children in such high numbers, were intentional.”
Further proof of intent, the report highlights, includes the targeted assault on neonatal and maternity facilities, which “directly endangered” newborn survival chances and led to increased miscarriages and birth abnormalities. Gaza saw a 41% drop in live births during the first half of 2025 compared to the same timeframe in 2022, the report noted.
It mentions several Israeli officials who openly supported striking children from the earliest stages of this genocidal campaign.
On October 9, 2023, Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Knesset, urged the military to “Erase Gaza… Do not leave a child there. Expel all the remaining ones at the end.” In January 2025, he declared, “Gaza is full of terrorists and every child born there is already a terrorist, from the moment of his birth.”
During the July 2024 attack on Al-Shifa hospital, Knesset member Amit Halevi referred to the hundreds of babies in its maternity ward as “all born terrorists.”
The report described this as part of a “systematic and complete destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza,” disproportionately impacting children. Bombings of pediatric hospitals forced ill and injured children into limited facilities lacking essential supplies and qualified pediatric personnel.
Meanwhile, Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid exacerbated survivable injuries, turning many into fatal or permanently disabling conditions. Physicians reported children undergoing “horrific amputations” without anesthesia and others with serious burn injuries denied pain relief.
The report stressed that destruction of medical infrastructure was deliberate, noting Israel had “operational plans and procedures for attacking healthcare facilities.” The outcome was an undermining of Palestinians’ ability to “heal, recover, and live.”
Since the ceasefire began, the commission records over 100 child deaths and hundreds of injuries by mid-January, many occurring near the “yellow line” which marks the boundary of Israel’s occupation in Gaza, an area the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been progressively encroaching upon.
Israel rejected the commission’s conclusions, dismissing the investigation as a “second defamatory advocacy report.”
“Israel dismisses this libelous sham,” it stated, while asserting that “every child deserves protection” but accusing the report of ignoring “the brutal tactics of Hamas.”
Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the UN commission, declared, “The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces.”
He added, “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.”
Beyond Gaza, the commission noted that Israeli forces have killed over 200 children in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, 2023. Hundreds more have been detained, often without charges, many suffering systemic abuse in custody, including starvation, denial of medical care, torture, and sexual violence.
“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” Muralidhar said. “The destruction of their health, education, and development is irreversible.”
He continued, “The protection, care, and survival of Palestinian children are inseparable from the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.”
Original article: Common Dreams
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