Israel has deliberately and intentionally targeted Palestinian children during its military campaign in Gaza, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, a UN commission of inquiry has said.
A report released on Tuesday says that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately and intentionally targeted Palestinian children, including after a ceasefire came into effect in October 2025.
It says that Israeli forces “deliberately carried out acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children”, as part of a “deliberate strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza”. Around 30% of those killed in the Gaza war were children, the report found, with a total death toll of at least 20,179 by October 2025.
The report by the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.
A previous report released by the commission last September found that Israel had committed genocide and said these acts were incited by senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel called those accusations “defamatory” and “distorted”.
“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, the commission’s chair, in a statement accompanying the report.
“This indicates that such attacks, which killed children in such high numbers, were intentional.”
Israel rejected what it called the Commission’s “second defamatory advocacy report”, Israel’s mission in Geneva said on Tuesday.
“Israel dismisses this libellous sham,” it said in a statement, adding that “every child deserves protection”.
The commission concluded that Israel conducted its operations with “genocidal intent” and with a purpose to “destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza,” it said.
Israeli forces continued to use high-payload munitions and weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated residential areas despite mounting child casualties, the commission said.
Mr Muralidhar said: “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.”
The commission said it believed Palestinian children were targeted collectively because Israeli security forces considered the civilian population as a whole to be associated with Hamas and other armed groups.
It also found that the proportion of children killed was higher than in previous conflicts in Gaza. By comparison, in Israeli military operations in Gaza in 2008–2009 and 2014, children made up approximately 24 per cent of conflict-related fatalities.
The inquiry said that attacks on healthcare and reproductive facilities impacted the survival of newborns and reported increases in miscarriages, and that nearly all children in Gaza were reported to require psychological support.
The strategy of killing and injuring Palestinian children “was part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group in Gaza,” it said.
The independent UN inquiry also found that Israel has also committed war crimes in the occupied West Bank.
It follows a report by UNICEF on Monday, which said that 265 children have been killed since the ceasefire and that children have been shot, bombed, struck by quadcopters and have also been killed while in their tents, schools and while playing football or fishing.
British doctors who have returned from Gaza have previously reported witnessing bullet wounds to the heads, necks, chests and testicles of children. A peer-reviewed study by the British Medical Journal found “military grade severity of injuries” including significant wounds reported in the head, chest, and limbs of civilians.
Since the ceasefire, over 1,000 people have been killed and thousands are awaiting medical evacuation. Humanitarian reports suggest rat infestations and severe sanitation issues that have caused the spread of disease in the strip as the passage of goods across the border remains restricted.
The living conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza, including widespread attacks, repeated displacement and starvation caused by the blockade of aid, food and medicine, severely harmed children’s health and development,” resulting in preventable mortality of children,” the report said.
A rebuttal shared by Israel’s mission in Geneva said Israel “consistently strives to minimise harm to children even in situations of conflict” and that Israel rejected the suggestion it deliberately targets children “in the strongest terms”.
Israel’s rebuttal said the report failed to mention Israel’s role in facilitating vaccinations and the entry of medical staff, and the establishment of field hospitals. It accused Hamas of systematically diverting humanitarian aid and fuel for hospital, accusations that Hamas has rejected.
In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Commission found a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children and documented evidence of torture, including sexual and gender-based violence, during mass arrests and detention.
It said that Palestinian children, particularly boys, were subjected to systematic mistreatment in detention, including forced stripping, beatings and food deprivation.
The commission concluded that the treatment constituted the crimes against humanity of torture and other inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious injury.
Israel said that the report’s findings on the West Bank omitted context on the “constant terrorist threat” that it said Israeli security forces were responding to.
