Israel continues genocide in Gaza by deliberately killing children, UN inquiry finds

ISRAEL IS CONTINUING to commit genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza through the deliberate killing of children, according to a UN inquiry.

A previous report from the UN’s independent international committee of inquiry focusing on Palestine and Israel, published last year, concluded that Israel had committed genocide against the population of the besieged Palestinian territory. 

Today’s report shows that Israel has continued its genocidal campaign since a nominal ceasefire with Hamas came into effect in October 2025. 

“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said the commission’s chair, Srinivasan Muralidhar.

“Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law.”

The report found that 30% of the more than 70,000 people killed in Gaza since October 2023 were children. More than 1,000 people have been killed since the ceasefire agreement. 

The UN Human Rights Council said that “severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation, and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood and will continue to affect children in Gaza throughout their lives”.

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It said that Palestinian children have been detained and tortured, as well as subjected to sexual violence by Israeli forces.

Israel’s targeting of neonatal and maternity care centres in Gaza “have directly harmed the survival of newborns and Palestinians’ reproductive future, including rises in miscarriages, birth defects and lasting vulnerabilities among newborns, resulting in the destruction of Palestinian newborn life and the population’s continuity”, the council said.

It added that by targeting children, “Israel is eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, weakening the demographic vitality, and overall capacity of the Palestinian people to sustain and exercise its right to determine its future as a people”.

The report also contains evidence of the direct and deliberate killing of children by Israeli soldiers.

A doctor who visited Gaza on a medical mission is quoted in the report, saying:

“Based on the clustering of injuries and the targeted body parts, I assess that the Israeli soldiers have been deliberately shooting teenage boys in a game of target practice – a different body part being targeted on different days… There is a very clear pattern that suggest this is a deliberate aiming of different body parts [of children].”

Israel stands accused of committing genocide at the International Court of Justice, the UN’s highest court, in a case brought by South Africa.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netnyahu, and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, are also wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity, including the crime of extermination. 

Israel said today it “utterly rejects” the findings of the commission of inquiry, calling the report “propaganda” and a “libellous sham”.

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