Geneva, Switzerland. An independent U.N. inquiry said on Tuesday that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank.
Report findings
The report by the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The commission said Palestinian children were deliberately targeted and killed during the war, including after a ceasefire came into effect in October 2025. It said this was a key element in establishing genocidal intent by Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part, in Gaza.
“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” Srinivasan Muralidhar, the commission’s chair, said in a statement accompanying the report.
Casualty figures
The report found that around 30% of those killed in the Gaza war were children. Between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2025, at least 20,179 children were killed, representing around 30% of the overall death toll.
It said the proportion of children killed was higher than in previous conflicts. In hostilities in Gaza in 2008–2009 and 2014, children made up approximately 24% of conflict-related fatalities, the report said.
Previous findings and Israeli response
A previous report by the commission in September found that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, incited these acts. Israel called those accusations scandalous.
Israel’s mission in Geneva said it rejected what it called the commission’s “second defamatory advocacy report”.
“Israel dismisses this libelous sham,” it said in a statement, adding that “every child deserves protection” and asserting that the report ignored “the brutal tactics of Hamas”.
