Israeli forces continue to commit genocide against Palestinians by deliberately targeting children in the Gaza Strip, an independent United Nations Commission of Inquiry has found.
In a report published Tuesday, the commission — which last year concluded Israel had committed genocide in Gaza — found that Israeli military operations have continued causing “unprecedented death, injury and trauma” to Palestinian children.
The commission describes what it says is the deliberate targeting of children as a key indicator of Israeli authorities’ genocidal intent to destroy the Palestinian people, including after a ceasefire in Gaza took effect.
“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, chairman of the commission.
The Israeli government has repeatedly denied committing genocide, and officials swiftly decried Tuesday’s UN findings.
The Foreign Ministry called it “a propaganda piece as outrageous as its previous ones,” while Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called it a “political blood libel disguised as a UN document.”
“Instead of addressing Hamas’ crimes, the October 7 massacre, the hostages, and Hamas’ cynical use of children and civilians as human shields, the commission has once again chosen to place Israel in the dock,” Danon said.
The report details conditions Israel has imposed on Gaza since the ceasefire — widespread attacks and the blocking of humanitarian and medical aid — which it said caused “multi-layered harm to Palestinian children’s survival, health and development.”
It documents what it describes as a systematic pattern of Israeli attacks on hospitals, health clinics and reproductive facilities — with devastating short- and long-term consequences for children’s physical and psychological wellbeing.
The US-backed ceasefire brokered in October ended two years of war in Gaza — though, as the report noted, “hostilities did not cease but rather were reduced.”
Eight months on, Israel has carried out near-daily airstrikes, killing over 1,000 Palestinians, including over 250 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israel has accused Hamas of repeatedly violating the ceasefire and refusing to lay down its arms. Most of Gaza’s population still lives in tents, with Israel blocking reconstruction materials and heavy equipment over Hamas’ refusal to disarm.
An international security force was supposed to deploy to Gaza under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, with Israel gradually withdrawing. Instead, Israel has expanded its territorial control — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel’s forces now control 70% of the enclave.
Israel initially set up a temporary “yellow line” on a map – demarcating an area occupied by the military following the ceasefire.
But that line has gradually moved to the west, expanding the Israeli military’s entrenchment in Gaza and squeezing Palestinians into an ever-smaller portion of the territory. Crossing the line remains forbidden to residents, hundreds of whom have been shot dead for coming too close, Palestinian officials say. Now a new “orange line” beyond the earlier yellow line marks off newly seized land.
As the line keeps shifting, it is difficult for Palestinians to know where it begins and ends, particularly children.
The report also focused on the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, accusing Israel of war crimes and highlighting “a sharp increase in violence” against Palestinian children by Israeli settlers.
It concluded that the Israeli military has “repeatedly employed unreasonable, excessive and punitive force against children as a tool of control, deterrence and collective intimidation” in the West Bank.
According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, 236 Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023.In both Gaza and the West Bank, the report cites “mass arbitrary arrests and detentions” of children — many of whom remain unaccounted for in Gaza, their whereabouts unknown.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the report’s findings, saying its importance lies in “reaffirming the international community’s failure to stop the violations committed by the occupying power and to hold accountable those responsible for these crimes against Palestinian children.”
The commission called on the Israeli government to “immediately halt military operations in Gaza,” and to abide by its “special obligations towards children under international law.”
It urged member states to arrest Israeli officials wanted by the International Criminal Court, halt arms transfers to Israel, and impose sanctions on Israeli officials and settlers.
