UN inquiry accuses Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children

UN inquiry accuses Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children Wed 24 Jun 2026 at 5:00am In short: A new report by the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory accuses Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children. The Israeli government is condemning the inquiry and rejecting its findings, labelling the report "deeply flawed" and full of "errors and distortions" designed to push a "politically-driven anti-Israel narrative". The commission says the use of "large-yield bombs" that killed children "in such high numbers" indicated intentionality. A United Nations inquiry has accused Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza, including by shooting directly at "their vital organs" using drones and snipers. The report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, has detailed instances of alleged crimes against Palestinian children since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. It has accused Israeli forces of committing genocide, war crimes against children, including wilful killing and intentionally targeting civilians, and crimes against humanity including aged-based persecution. "The Israeli government and security forces have deliberately carried out acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children, irreparably destroying the sanctity of childhood, including family ties, identity, innocence, safety and future," the inquiry said. "The commission found that much of the harm suffered by Palestinian children was not incidental but intended to destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group." The Israeli government condemned the inquiry and rejected its findings, labelling the report "deeply flawed" and full of "errors and distortions" designed to push a "politically-driven anti-Israel narrative". It further accused the inquiry of "ignoring Israeli victims" of the deadly October 7 attacks by Hamas where 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage. The commission said it had previously reported on the impact on Israeli children, but the Israeli government said it was nothing more than a passing reference to their experience. Commission says killings 'intentional' The commission said around 30 per cent of the Palestinians in Gaza killed between October 2023 and October 2025 were children — higher than previous conflicts in the strip. It also said the use of "large-yield bombs" was designed to cause "maximum casualties". "This indicates that such attacks, which killed children in such high numbers, were intentional," the report stated. "The commission concludes that children were intentionally targeted collectively because the Israeli security forces considered the civilian population as a whole to be associated with Hamas and other armed groups." It said it had "investigated and documented cases demonstrating a consistent pattern of children being deliberately targeted by the Israeli security forces in Gaza". One of the cases it referred to was the killing of a family of seven and two paramedics in January 2024. Among them was five-year-old Hind Rajab, whose name has become synonymous with the plight of children in the war-ravaged strip. Her body, along with the remains of the rest of her family, were recovered 12 days after they were attacked in Gaza City. The commission disputed the insistence of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that it was nowhere near the scene of the attack, and accused soldiers of deliberating obstructing rescue attempts despite knowing that children were in the car. In another case, the commission accused Israeli forces of using a sniper rifle to shoot a 15-year-old boy who had been waving a white cloth as his family tried to evacuate a building in Khan Younis in January 2024. The boy was shot three times, with the commission saying the last two shots "were likely meant to ensure that he was dead". His 20-year-old brother was also killed after rushing to his body. 'Gaza is full of terrorists' The commission also listed comments from Israeli politicians, likening Palestinian children to terrorists as indicative of a broader cultural concern. It quoted member of the Knesset (MK) and deputy speaker Nissim Vaturi saying "Gaza is full of terrorists and every child born there is already a terrorist, from the moment of his birth" in January 2025. Remarks from another MK, Merav Ben-Ari, were also listed. "Children in Gaza brought [their own killing] on themselves," the report quoted her as saying just over a week after Hamas's deadly attacks on Israel started the war in Gaza. The commission said attacks on medical facilities in Gaza, including where children and newborns were receiving treatment, added further evidence to its case. Beyond that, the commission said Palestinian children in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both under Israeli occupation, had also surged during the period it investigated. "Israeli military operations, arrests and detention, checkpoints, raids, settler violence, and constant surveillance have terrorised children and created a pervasive sense of hopelessness among children," the report concluded. "Israeli policies have produced a constant situation of diffused, ambient terror, that does not require constant bombing to remain effective. "Mental harm has become intergenerational, producing a distinctive "occupied psyche" in which the freedom to play, imagine, hope, and develop an identity has been eroded." 'False and distorted narrative' In response, the Israeli government published an 18-page document picking apart the commission's findings and labelling them as "factually unsubstantiated" and lacking "any legal authority." "In its effort to manufacture a false and distorted narrative that Israel acts with the intent or policy of deliberately harming Palestinian children, the commission consistently disregards the well-documented efforts taken by Israel to alleviate civilian harm and to facilitate humanitarian aid," the response said. "It likewise ignores Hamas's deliberate strategy of exploiting the presence of civilians and of commandeering humanitarian aid for military purposes, and its direct responsibility for the resulting harm inflicted upon the civilian population in Gaza. "These deficiencies recur throughout the report and ultimately reflect more on its authors than on Israel." It accused the commission of trying to paint Israel as the "ultimate villain," and said many of the examples it referred to as evidence of alleged Israeli crimes were based on allegations and unsubstantiated testimony from people on the ground. Israel also accused the commission of glossing over the conduct of Hamas in terrorising the population in Gaza. "Hamas has systematically recruited and exploited Palestinian children as fighters, messengers, tunnel workers, and human shields — including for intelligence-gathering, the planting of explosive devices on roads, and direct attacks on Israeli forces," the response said. "This is not a peripheral issue in a report about children — it is central to it." It highlighted the plight of the Bibas family, 9-month-old Kfir and his 4-year-old brother Ariel, who were taken hostage along with the parents on October 7, 2023. Their father Yarden was the only member of the family to return to Israel alive. Israel has accused Hamas of murdering the children, while Hamas has said they were killed in an Israeli air strike which hit the place they were being held in Gaza.