A United Nations independent commission of inquiry has concluded that Israel has deliberately targeted Palestinian children in Gaza, and that this constitutes a core element of ongoing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The three-member UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, released its findings on Tuesday, saying there were "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Israeli authorities and security forces had "continued to commit the crime of genocide" in Gaza. Israel flatly rejected the report, calling it a "libellous sham" and "defamatory propaganda."
The commission found that at least 20,179 children were killed and 44,143 injured as a direct result of hostilities in Gaza between October 2023 and October 2025 — approximately 30% of all those killed by Israeli forces. The report states that Israeli forces used high-payload munitions and weapons with widespread effects in densely populated residential areas, as well as precision weapons including drones and snipers to target children's vital organs, in strikes on homes, schools and overcrowded displacement camps. Commission chair Srinivasan Muralidhar, an Indian jurist, said: "By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future." The killing of children was described as "part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group in Gaza."
The report extends its findings beyond Gaza to the occupied West Bank — territory Israel has controlled since 1967 — documenting a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children, as well as evidence of torture, forced stripping, beatings, food deprivation and sexual and gender-based violence against children during mass arrests and detention. Attacks on hospitals, including neonatal and paediatric facilities, were found to have systematically undermined children's access to healthcare, while Israel's blockade of aid, food and medicine caused acute and chronic malnutrition. Destruction of schools and mass displacement were said to have "eroded the intellectual and social foundations of Palestinian society." Notably, the commission said children continued to be killed after a ceasefire came into effect in October 2025, with UN children's agency UNICEF separately reporting at least 265 children killed since the truce.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israeli leaders have consistently denied genocide allegations, asserting their forces acted in self-defence in accordance with international law and took all possible measures to minimise civilian harm. Israel's foreign ministry accused the commission of being a "fundamentally flawed mechanism" designed to target and delegitimise Israel, and said the report ignored Hamas's use of Palestinian civilians as human shields and the brutal targeting of Israeli children by Hamas.
The commission does not formally represent the United Nations as a whole, though its findings carry significant weight. This report follows a September 2025 commission report that first concluded Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who is separately subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes — had incited those acts. A case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide is also currently before the International Court of Justice, though a ruling could take years. The commission's conclusions add to a growing body of findings by legal scholars, rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and UN investigators that have reached similar conclusions — all of which Israel has rejected.