A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israel continues to deliberately target and kill Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and war crimes in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
In a report published on Tuesday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined Israeli violations against Palestinian children since the start of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.<\/p>\n
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The report found that about 30 percent of people killed in Gaza since the start of the war were children.<\/p>\n
The report noted that Israel\u2019s targeting of neonatal and maternity care centres during its war on Gaza directly endangered Palestinians\u2019 reproductive future and the survival of newborns \u2013 driving a rise in miscarriages, birth defects and lasting vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n
It found that Israel\u2019s aid blockade<\/a> in Gaza last year also took a severe toll on Palestinian children, causing starvation-related deaths and a rise in disease as immunisation rates fell.<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,\u201d Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the commission, said.<\/p>\n \u201cEven 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The commission was established on May 27, 2021, during a special session of the UN Human Rights Council. It was set up to investigate alleged violations of international law and human rights abuses and look into the \u201croot causes\u201d of conflict between Israel and Palestine.<\/p>\n In a September 2025 report, the commission concluded that there were reasonable grounds to determine that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n It said Israel carried out four of the five prohibited acts defining genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention, including killings, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting conditions to destroy a group and imposing measures to prevent the group from reproducing.<\/p>\n More than 50,000 children have been killed<\/a> or wounded by Israeli forces since Israel began its war on Gaza, according to the UN children\u2019s agency (UNICEF).<\/p>\n The agency noted<\/a> that one Palestinian child has been killed every day on average for more than eight months in Gaza, since the so-called \u201cceasefire\u201d took effect last October.<\/p>\n