UN Inquiry Accuses Israel of War Crimes and Genocide Over Child Casualties in Gaza

A UN independent international commission on the Palestinian territories issued a blistering report on Tuesday accusing Israel of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, saying it deliberately targeted Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank. The panel said the scale and systematic nature of Israel’s military campaign caused an unprecedented toll of dead, wounded and traumatized children. Chair Navi Pillay said, “The evidence indicates that Palestinian children were a target of Israeli security forces,” adding that harm to minors continued even after the October 2025 ceasefire.

The commission said the attacks on children were not incidental, but part of a deliberate strategy that, in its view, supports an intent to destroy the Palestinian group in whole or in part. It said thousands of children were killed or injured, while many more suffered severe physical and psychological harm, repeated displacement, hunger, orphanhood and the collapse of education and health systems. The report also alleges deliberate shootings at children during evacuations, in displacement camps and at food distribution sites, as well as the use of starvation as a weapon and collective punishment.

According to the report, between 7 October 2023 and 7 October 2025 at least 20,179 children were killed in Gaza and 44,143 were wounded, about 30 percent of all dead and 26 percent of all wounded in that period. Among the dead were at least 5,031 children under five and about 1,029 infants under one year old. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 213 Palestinian children were killed in the same period, mostly boys. The commission also cited specific cases including Hind Rajab, five and a half, a 15-year-old shot while carrying a white flag in Khan Younis, and a 10-day-old baby hurt while being breastfed in a tent.

The report said more than 100 additional children were killed after the October 2025 ceasefire and the creation of the “yellow line” in Gaza, including two siblings aged 9 and 10 in November 2025 and a 14-year-old in Tubas whose evacuation for treatment was allegedly blocked for about 45 minutes. It also described damage to Nasser and Rantisi hospitals, which it said contributed to infant deaths in incubators in November 2023, and said more than 97 percent of school buildings in Gaza were damaged or destroyed. The commission accused Israeli units including the Kfir Brigade, 401st Brigade, Shayetet 13, Duvdevan and the Multidimensional Unit, and said detainees faced abuse, torture and sexual violence. It urged Israel to stop military operations, release detained minors, allow unrestricted aid and investigate those responsible, while also calling on states to arrest and surrender Israeli officials subject to ICC warrants and consider sanctions. Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected the findings, calling them biased, methodologically flawed and based on unreliable sources and anonymous testimony, and said the report ignored Hamas’s use of human shields.