Israel Targeted Gaza Children Resulting In Genocide, UN Inquiry Says

GENEVA, June 23 (Reuters) – Israeli officials and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, leading to genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes in Gaza and war crimes in the occupied West Bank, an independent UN investigation said on Tuesday.

The report prepared by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined violations against Palestinian children since October 7, 2023, when the war between Israel and Hamas began.

The report stated that approximately 30 percent of those killed in the Gaza war were children.

The commission’s previous report in September found that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and that senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, instigated these actions; These accusations were what Israel described as scandalous.

Israel’s mission in Geneva said Israel rejected what it called the Commission’s “second defamatory advocacy report.”

The statement said, “Israel rejects this slanderous lie,” stated that “every child deserves to be protected,” and claimed that the report ignored “Hamas’ brutal tactics.”

Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed during the war, including before a ceasefire came into force in October 2025, the UN commission said. The Commission said this was a fundamental element revealing the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to completely or partially destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza.

“The evidence shows that Palestinian children were deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces,” commission chairman Srinivasan Muralidhar said in a statement accompanying the report.

The report revealed that the rate of children killed was higher than in previous conflicts. At least 20,179 children were killed between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2025; This accounts for approximately 30% of the total number of deaths.

According to the report, in the conflicts in Gaza between 2008-2009 and 2014, approximately 24% of conflict-related deaths were children.

The commission stated that despite the increasing number of child casualties, Israeli forces continue to use high-carrying capacity ammunition and large-area-effect weapons in densely populated residential areas.

“This shows that such attacks, which lead to the death of many children, are intentional,” the statement said. He said it was believed that children were targeted en masse because Israeli security forces viewed the civilian population as a whole as being linked to Hamas and other armed groups.

A rebuttal shared by Israel’s mission in Geneva said Israel “consistently strives to minimize harm to children, even in situations of conflict” and rejected “in the strongest terms” the suggestion that Israel deliberately targets children.

Muralidhar said that by targeting children, Israel undermines the Palestinian people’s capacity to exist and determine their future.

The report stated that conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza, including widespread attacks, repeated displacements and starvation caused by the blockade of aid, food and medicine, are seriously harming children’s health and development, leading to preventable deaths and trauma.

The investigation also found that attacks on health and reproductive facilities were affecting the survival rate of newborn babies, that there was an increase in miscarriages, and that almost all children in Gaza reportedly required psychological support.

In Israel’s denial, it was stated that the report did not mention Israel’s role in facilitating vaccinations, entering medical personnel and establishing field hospitals. He accused Hamas of systematically diverting humanitarian aid and fuel to hospitals. Hamas has denied such accusations.

The commission found a sharp increase in Israeli settler violence against Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and documented evidence of torture, including sexual and gender-based violence, during mass arrests and detentions.

It was stated that Palestinian children, especially boys, were subjected to systematic ill-treatment in detention, including forced stripping, beatings and food deprivation.

The Commission concluded that treatment, torture and other inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious injury constituted crimes against humanity.

Israel’s refutation of this claim stated that the report’s findings on the West Bank ignored the context of the “persistent terrorist threat” to which Israeli security forces said they had responded. (Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Aidan Lewis)