Inquiry alleges Israel targeted Palestinian children in Gaza

A United Nations inquiry has accused Israel of deliberately attacking Palestinian children during the war in Gaza, saying the conduct amounted to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The findings add to international scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of children in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since October 2023.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel released the report on Tuesday. It examined alleged Israeli violations against Palestinian children during the Gaza war and in the occupied West Bank.

The commission said children made up about 30 percent of those killed in Gaza since the war began. It also said Israeli attacks on neonatal and maternity care facilities put newborns and Palestinians’ reproductive future at risk, contributing to more miscarriages, birth defects and long-term health harms.

The report also linked last year’s Israeli blockade on aid entering Gaza to child deaths from starvation and to the spread of disease as vaccination levels dropped. The commission said those conditions had a severe effect on Palestinian children.

“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said. He said children had continued to be killed and seriously wounded after the October 2025 ceasefire, accusing Israel of disregarding both the ceasefire and its obligations under international law.

Earlier genocide finding

The Human Rights Council created the commission on May 27, 2021, to investigate alleged violations of international law and human rights abuses and to examine the causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In September 2025, the same commission said there were reasonable grounds to conclude that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. It said Israel had carried out four of the five acts prohibited under the 1948 Genocide Convention: killing members of a group, causing serious physical or mental harm, imposing conditions intended to destroy a group, and taking measures to prevent births within the group.

UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, has said more than 50,000 children have been killed or injured by Israeli forces since the war began. The agency has also said one Palestinian child has been killed each day on average in Gaza for more than eight months since the ceasefire took effect last October.

On Monday, the UN warned that children in the Palestinian territory were becoming increasingly exposed as humanitarian organizations and rights defenders were forced to reduce their work.

Detention and West Bank damage

The commission said Palestinian children had also been detained and tortured in Israeli prisons, and subjected to other serious mistreatment, including sexual abuse. Palestinians in the occupied territory, including children, have faced increased arrests and detention since the start of the Gaza war, according to the report.

Defence for Children International-Palestine, a Palestinian rights group, said in March that more than half of Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons at the end of last year were detained without charge or trial.

The UN report also said Israeli forces had destroyed orphanages and educational facilities in the occupied West Bank, harming Palestinian children’s care, learning and development. The commission said it had identified Israeli military units responsible for attacks on children and called on Israel to stop violence against Palestinian children.

“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” Muralidhar said. He added that the protection and survival of Palestinian children were tied to the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.