Israel has deliberately targeted Palestinian children in Gaza in a campaign that amounts to genocide, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry said on Tuesday. The commission’s report, “The essence of childhood has been destroyed,” documents the killing of at least 20,179 Palestinian children and the injury of 44,143 more since 7 October 2023, with the killing continuing after the October 2025 ceasefire.
Released in Geneva by the three-member expert panel, the report is based on verified testimony, forensic analysis, and thousands of open-source items.
The Finding, and the Word Behind It
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded on Tuesday that Israel is committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank, through the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children. The 137-page conference room paper, document A/HRC/62/CRP.2, covers the period from 7 October 2023 to 31 March 2026. The State of Israel, the commission noted, did not respond to 13 requests for information or access during the investigation. The State of Palestine and the Gaza Ministry of Health did respond.
The commission’s chair, Indian jurist Srinivasan Muralidhar, said the evidence “shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces.” Commissioner Chris Sidoti added that anyone reading the report would see “every international legal norm” violated toward Palestinian children. The choice of the word “deliberately” runs through the document, distinguishing the commission’s findings from earlier characterizations of mass civilian harm as collateral damage.
How the Commission Documented the Targeting
The report documents what it calls the “deliberately targeted and killed” children across three channels: direct action by Israeli security forces, deaths from the conditions Israel imposed on Gaza, and abuse in detention. The methods the commission identifies include shooting at children’s vital organs with quadcopter drones and snipers, and using high-impact weapons on residential buildings, schools, and displacement camps crowded with children. The destruction of neonatal and pediatric hospitals is described as “systematically dismantling children’s access to life-sustaining care,” a pattern of attacks on healthcare that has continued, with the WHO’s suspension of Gaza medical evacuations after a contractor was killed.
The report also documents sexual and gender-based violence against children, particularly boys, in arrests and detention. It finds the violence “entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered and intergenerational pattern of occupation and hostilities.”
The commission’s methodology combined victim and witness interviews with forensic pathology, including CT-scan analysis, and visual media authentication of photographs and videos. Children were interviewed only with informed parental consent and child assent, and the commission said it withdrew from contact where re-traumatization was a risk. The State of Israel did not respond to 13 requests for information or access during the investigation. The full source list, the body said, is on file with the commission.
- 7 October 2023: Hamas-led attack on southern Israel kills about 1,200 people and takes 251 hostages; Israel launches its military campaign in Gaza.
- 2025: The commission’s earlier report concludes Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
- October 2025: Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire as part of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
- 23 June 2026: Commission releases the report “The essence of childhood has been destroyed” in Geneva, with a press conference by Muralidhar and Sidoti.
20,000 Children Killed, 44,000 Injured
The headline figures are direct. The commission documents 20,179 children killed and 44,143 injured between 7 October 2023 and 31 March 2026. The report adds that about 30% of all people killed in the Gaza war have been children, per the commission’s own count.
The cumulative toll, drawn from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry and described by the UN as reliable, is higher. It lists at least 73,035 people killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, including more than 21,280 children. Since the October 2025 ceasefire, Gaza’s health ministry says more than 1,020 Palestinians have been killed, including 265 children; the Israeli military says four of its soldiers have also been killed. Both sides have accused each other of repeated violations of the truce, with an Israeli air strike near a school in Deir al-Balah killing four Palestinians in the days after the report’s release.
| Source | Period covered | Children killed | Children injured |
|---|---|---|---|
| UN Commission of Inquiry report | 7 Oct 2023 to 31 Mar 2026 | 20,179 | 44,143 |
| Gaza health ministry (UN-cited) | Since 7 Oct 2023 | More than 21,280 | Not specified |
| Gaza health ministry post-ceasefire | Since Oct 2025 truce | 265 | Not specified |
A 14-Year-Old’s Last 45 Minutes
At a press conference in Geneva, Sidoti read from a single case inside the report. A 14-year-old boy was shot by an Israeli military patrol as he left his house, with no fighting taking place in the area at the time.
The soldiers, Sidoti said, “were chatting and probably some of them smoking” while the child bled out. The case is one of several the commission used to argue that the killings were not the byproduct of lawful targeting decisions under the fog of war. The body of the report contains additional testimonies describing the shooting of children at close range, and the entry of quadcopter drones into family living spaces, including after the October 2025 ceasefire. Sidoti described the case as part of a pattern that recurs across the commission’s documentation.
The commission treats the case, alongside forensic findings, as evidence of intent. “He was shot, badly injured and was lying on the ground,” Sidoti told reporters in Geneva. The report says the pattern recurs across documented incidents.
Settler Violence and Detention
The report’s coverage extends well beyond Gaza. The commission documents a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It also examines the treatment of children in Israeli prisons and detention facilities.
The findings include forced stripping, beatings, food deprivation, and what the commission calls torture and other inhumane acts. It says adolescent boys have been subjected to “systemic mistreatment.” Sexual and gender-based violence during arrests and detention is documented in multiple cases. The commission concludes the treatment amounts to the crimes against humanity of torture and other inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious injury. It also found that settler violence has increased in scope and severity since 7 October 2023, with limited accountability for the perpetrators.
Israel Rejects the Findings as a ‘Libellous Sham’
Israel rejected the report in full. The foreign ministry called the commission a “fundamentally flawed mechanism whose very purpose is to single out and vilify Israel rather than seek the truth,” per the report findings and Israel’s rejection.
The ministry’s statement called the document a “libellous sham” and “a propaganda piece as outrageous as its previous ones.” It accused the commission of “completely erasing Israeli children who were brutally murdered, kidnapped, and targeted by Hamas, while ignoring Hamas’ cynical use of Palestinian children as human shields and pawns of war.” The commission itself, in earlier reports, has documented Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including against Israeli children and child hostages. Israel has not previously responded to any of the commission’s information requests.
The Israeli mission in Geneva said Israel rejects the commission’s findings. Israeli officials have consistently rejected genocide allegations, saying operations in Gaza are conducted in self-defence, to defeat Hamas and other armed groups, and to secure the release of hostages. The International Court of Justice is hearing a separate genocide case brought by South Africa; Israel has called that case “wholly unfounded” and based on “biased and false claims.”
Why the Findings Cut Deeper Than Numbers
The commission frames the killings as more than a casualty count. Muralidhar said the targeting of children amounts to an attack on the capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine its future. That language runs through the report and its accompanying statements, and it shapes the commission’s reading of every data point it collected.
By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine its future.
Muralidhar, speaking in Geneva on 23 June 2026. The phrase also appears in the report itself, where the commission concludes the killings form part of a deliberate strategy to destroy the future of Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children. The report treats the destruction of orphanages, schools, and healthcare as components of a single pattern aimed at the demographic vitality of the Palestinian people. By striking educational and health systems, the commission argues, Israel is sabotaging the foundations on which a future generation would be raised. “The protection, care and survival of Palestinian children are inseparable from the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination,” Muralidhar said.
What the Commission Now Wants
The commission has called on Israel to cease violations against Palestinian children and end its presence in the occupied West Bank, in line with the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion. It has identified specific Israeli military units responsible for killing and injuring children.
The commission has issued recommendations to Israel and to all UN member states, calling for accountability, sanctions enforcement, and reparations. It has stopped short of recommending the suspension of any single country, leaving the political response to the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, and individual member states. “The international community as a whole must uphold their international legal obligations,” the commission stated in its recommendations.
“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” Muralidhar said. The destruction is intergenerational, the report adds, affecting health, education, and development across a generation. The commission’s calls for accountability are the floor of a longer process it places in the hands of member states. The report’s findings add to the documentary record being considered by the ICJ in the South Africa case, which could take years to conclude.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the UN inquiry find about Palestinian children in Gaza?
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry found on 23 June 2026 that Israel has deliberately targeted Palestinian children in Gaza, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank. The report documents at least 20,179 children killed and 44,143 injured between 7 October 2023 and 31 March 2026.
How did the commission determine that the targeting was deliberate?
The commission’s methodology combined victim and witness interviews, two independent forensic pathologists, and visual media authentication of photographs and videos. It used the same standard of proof applied in earlier reports. The commission sent 13 requests for information to the Government of Israel, none of which were answered.
Did the killing of children continue after the October 2025 ceasefire?
Yes. The commission found that “even 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.” Gaza’s health ministry says more than 1,020 Palestinians have been killed since the truce, including 265 children.
How did Israel respond to the report?
Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the report as a “libellous sham” and “a propaganda piece as outrageous as its previous ones.” The ministry called the commission a “fundamentally flawed mechanism” and said it erases Israeli children killed by Hamas. Israel did not respond to the commission’s 13 prior information requests.
How does this report differ from the ICJ genocide case?
The commission is a UN-mandated investigative body that produces findings and recommendations. The International Court of Justice is hearing a separate genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel, which could take years to conclude. The commission’s findings do not have the legal force of a court ruling, but they add to the documentary record the court is considering.
