According to a report published by the United Nations News Service on the 23rd, an independent investigation committee of the United Nations stated that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. This constitutes crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Additionally, these actions also constitute war crimes committed in the West Bank.
This report was issued by the Independent International Investigative Commission on the Situation in the United Nations Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) and Israel. The Commission was established by the United Nations Human Rights Council in May 2021, tasked with investigating violations of international humanitarian law that occur in the occupied Palestinian territory and within Israel.
In September last year, the committee identified four of the “five acts of genocide” defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, committed by Israeli authorities and security forces. The latest report once again condemns Israel for continuing to commit acts of genocide. The investigation found that the intensity and systematic nature of Israeli military operations continue, resulting in unprecedented deaths, injuries, and psychological trauma for Palestinian children.
According to reports, from October 2023 to October 2025, the Israeli military killed over 20,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, causing injuries to more than 44,000 children. The number of dead children accounted for approximately 30% of the total number of deaths. Since the ceasefire was announced in October 2025, another 260 children have lost their lives, with an average of one child killed each day.
The committee emphasized that deliberately targeting children is one of the key elements proving Israel’s intent to completely or partially destroy the Palestinian community in Gaza, a form of ethnic extermination.
On May 21, 2025, after an Israeli air raid on the area where the Jabaliyeh refugee camp is located in northern Gaza, a man sought help, holding an injured girl. Xinhua News Agency (photographed by Mahmoud Zakki)
"The Chairman of the committee, Moulaili Dar, stated: "Evidence indicates that Palestinian children have always been targets of intentional violence and killings by Israeli security forces. Even after the ceasefire in October 2025, Gaza children continue to be subjected to attacks and severe injuries, while Israel continues to disregard ceasefire agreements and international law obligations to protect Palestinian children."
The report indicates that severe physical and psychological trauma, collective suffering, grief over lost loved ones, separation from relatives, disabilities, repeated displacement, hunger, and the collapse of education and medical systems have ruined the childhoods of Palestinian children and will continue to affect their lives.
According to reports, a large number of Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe abuses in Israeli prisons and detention facilities. Many of them remain missing. Israeli security forces have even committed sexual violence against children as a means of collective humiliation and oppression.
Additionally, the medical, nutritional, and educational systems for children in Gaza have also been completely destroyed. The report indicates that Israeli attacks on neonatal and obstetric care centers in Gaza directly endanger the survival of newborns and the reproductive future of Palestinians, leading to increased rates of miscarriages, more birth defects, and newborns remaining in a vulnerable state for a longer period of time.
By targeting children as targets of aggression, Israel is eroding the social foundations of Palestine, weakening its population vitality, and diminishing the ability of the Palestinian people to maintain and exercise their self-determination.
The committee stated that the international community should fulfill its international legal obligations, call for a cessation of hostilities, urge Israel to end occupation, and make accountability and judicial remedies for the victims an important part of any political process.
