The Israeli military is deliberately targeting children in the Gaza Strip and continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians, an independent United Nations commission of inquiry has revealed.
In a report released Tuesday, the commission, which concluded last year that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, found that Israeli military operations continue and are causing “unprecedented deaths, injuries and trauma” to Palestinian children.
The commission described the alleged deliberate targeting of children as a key indicator of the Israeli authorities’ genocidal intent to destroy the Palestinian people, including after the ceasefire in Gaza took effect.
“Despite the October 2025 ceasefire, Israel continues to ignore the ceasefire and the protection of Palestinian children under international law, and children continue to be killed and seriously injured,” said Commission Chairman Srinivasan Muralidhar.
The Israeli government has repeatedly denied genocide, and officials were quick to condemn Tuesday’s U.N. findings.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called it “as outrageous a piece of propaganda as its predecessors,” and Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon 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 put Israel in the defendant’s seat,” Danon said.
The report details the conditions that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire, including widespread attacks and blocking humanitarian and medical aid, which it says has caused “multilayered damage to the survival, health and development of Palestinian children.”
The document describes a systematic pattern of Israeli attacks on hospitals, clinics, and reproductive facilities, documenting the devastating short- and long-term effects on children’s physical and mental health.
A U.S.-backed ceasefire brokered in October ended the two-year war in Gaza, but as the report notes, “hostilities have not ceased, but rather diminished.”
Eight months later, Israel has carried out near-daily airstrikes that have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, including more than 250 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israel accuses Hamas of repeatedly violating the ceasefire agreement and refusing to lay down its weapons. Most of Gaza’s population still lives in tents, and Israel has blocked supplies of reconstruction materials and heavy machinery because Hamas refuses to disarm.
Under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, international security forces were to be sent to Gaza, and Israel was gradually withdrawing. In return, Israel expanded its territorial control. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces now control 70% of the enclave.
Israel initially set up a temporary “yellow line” on the map to demarcate areas occupied by the military after the ceasefire.
But the line is gradually moving westward, widening Israeli military entrenchments in the Gaza Strip and forcing Palestinians into smaller and smaller parts of the territory. Palestinian officials say residents are still prohibited from crossing the border, and hundreds have been shot dead for getting too close. Now, a new “orange line” beyond the previous yellow line marks newly seized land.
As the line keeps changing, it is difficult for Palestinians, especially children, to know where it begins and ends.
The report also focused on the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, condemning Israeli war crimes and highlighting a “surge in violence” against Palestinian children by Israeli settlers.
The report concluded that Israeli forces “repeatedly use unreasonable, excessive and punitive force against children as a means of control, deterrence and collective intimidation” in the West Bank.
According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, 236 Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023. The report cited “massive arbitrary arrests and detentions” of children in both Gaza and the West Bank, many of whom remain missing in Gaza and whose whereabouts are unknown.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the report’s findings, saying its importance was to “reaffirm the international community’s failure to prevent violations by the occupying forces and hold accountable those responsible for these crimes against Palestinian children.”
The commission called on the Israeli government to “immediately cease military operations in Gaza” and comply with its “special obligations towards children under international law.”
It called on 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.
