UN commission says Israel committed genocide in Gaza as inquiry cites child targeting

A United Nations commission of inquiry has said Israel committed genocide in Gaza, alleging that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children. The report also says the conduct amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes, and extends its findings to the occupied West Bank. Israel rejected the conclusions, calling the report a libellous sham.

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The commission said it had reasonable grounds to conclude that Israeli forces carried out acts inflicting death and severe physical and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children. It said those actions formed part of a deliberate strategy to destroy the future of Palestinians in Gaza by targeting children. The report also says the killings continued after last October's ceasefire in Gaza, adding to its claim that the pattern of abuse did not stop with the truce.

The findings come from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, a three-member expert panel established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021. The panel does not speak for the United Nations as a whole, but its reports have carried significant weight in international debate over the war. The commission has previously said there were reasonable grounds to conclude that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, and it has also found that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes on 7 October 2023.

The latest report adds to a growing body of allegations about the conduct of the war, which began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Since then, at least 73,035 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, including more than 21,280 children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. The UN has treated those figures as reliable, and the commission said about 30% of those killed in the war were children.

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The report also places renewed focus on the occupied West Bank, where it says war crimes were committed alongside the Gaza allegations. That widens the legal and diplomatic implications beyond the immediate battlefield and keeps attention on the obligations of parties to the conflict under international humanitarian law. It also raises further questions about the protection of children, health care and humanitarian access in Gaza, where the commission has linked child deaths not only to direct attacks but also to blockade, disease and reduced immunisation.

What remains unclear is how Israel will respond beyond its initial rejection, and whether the report will prompt any new international action. The commission's conclusions are not a court ruling, but they are likely to be cited in legal, political and diplomatic discussions in the coming days. Attention will also turn to whether the ceasefire in Gaza is being observed and whether conditions for children and other civilians improve.

A United Nations commission of inquiry has accused Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza, saying the conduct forms part of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report, published on Tuesday, examines alleged Israeli violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war in October 2023. It also says war crimes were committed in the occupied West Bank.

The commission said about 30% of people killed in Gaza since the start of the war were children. It said the targeting of neonatal and maternity care centres endangered the reproductive future of Palestinians and the survival of newborns, while also contributing to miscarriages, birth defects and lasting vulnerabilities. The report further said Israel's aid blockade in Gaza last year had a severe effect on children, including starvation-related deaths and a rise in disease as immunisation rates fell.

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Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the commission, said the evidence showed Palestinian children had been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces. He added that children continued to be killed and seriously injured even after the October 2025 ceasefire, and said there had been continued disregard for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to children under international law. The commission was established in May 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate alleged violations of international law and human rights abuses and to examine the root causes of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

The findings add to a wider body of UN scrutiny over the conduct of the war in Gaza. In a report in September 2025, the same commission said there were reasonable grounds to determine that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. It said that assessment was based on four of the five prohibited acts defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention, including killings, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting conditions intended to destroy a group, and imposing measures to prevent births within the group.

The latest report places renewed focus on the protection of children, health care and humanitarian access in a conflict that has already caused extensive civilian harm. The commission's conclusions are likely to intensify international debate over accountability, the conduct of military operations and the legal obligations of parties to the conflict. The report links child deaths not only to direct attacks but also to wider conditions created by blockade, disease and reduced access to immunisation and maternal care.

It also raises questions about the implementation of the ceasefire announced in October 2025, given the commission's claim that children are still being killed and injured. What remains unclear from the report is how Israel will respond to the findings and whether any new international action will follow. The commission has not said that its conclusions amount to a court ruling, but its language is likely to be cited in legal and diplomatic discussions.

Further scrutiny may focus on the evidence behind the allegations, the situation for children in Gaza after the ceasefire, and whether humanitarian conditions improve in the months ahead.

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