UN Inquiry Says Israel Targets Palestinian Children, Citing 30% of Gaza Dead as Minors
Updated
Updated · Al Jazeera English · Jun 23
UN Inquiry Says Israel Targets Palestinian Children, Citing 30% of Gaza Dead as Minors
3 articles · Updated · Al Jazeera English · Jun 23
Summary
A UN commission said Israel has deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, amounting to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
About 30% of those killed in Gaza since October 2023 were children, the report said, linking attacks on maternity and neonatal care, plus last year’s aid blockade, to miscarriages, birth defects, starvation deaths and disease.
More than 50,000 children have been killed or wounded since the war began, UNICEF says, and the commission added that children have continued to die even after the October 2025 ceasefire.
The inquiry also cited arrests, torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian children in Israeli detention, and said Israeli forces destroyed orphanages and education facilities in the West Bank.
Israel rejected the report as a “libelous sham,” while the commission said it had identified military units responsible and renewed its earlier September 2025 finding of reasonable grounds to determine genocide.
Are UN reports fueling 'lawfare' by overlooking the systematic use of human shields by non-state actors?
How can courts prove 'genocidal intent' when a foe's strategy is to maximize their own civilian deaths?
UN Commission Finds Israel Committed Genocide in Gaza: Over 50,000 Children Killed or Injured, Legal and Humanitarian Crisis Intensifies
Overview
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, with Navi Pillay stressing that the international community must not remain silent in the face of this 'genocidal campaign.' The Commission's September 2025 report identified Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and then-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as officials who have incited genocide, yet Israeli authorities have not acted against them. The report emphasizes that when clear evidence of genocide emerges, all states are legally obligated to use all available means to stop it, as failure to act amounts to complicity.