U.N. Commission Says Israeli Forces Deliberately Targeted Palestinian Children in Gaza

An independent U.N. inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, constituting genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank. 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 Oct.

7, 2023. Around 30 percent of those killed in the Gaza war were children, the report found.

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 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, the commission’s chair said in a statement accompanying the report. The report found that the proportion of children killed was higher than in previous conflicts.

Between Oct 7, 2023 and Oct. 7, 2025, at least 20,179 children were killed, around 30 percent of the overall death toll. By comparison, in hostilities in Gaza in 2008-09 and 2014, children made up approximately 24 percent of conflict-related fatalities, the report said.

Israeli forces continued to use high-payload munitions and weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated residential areas despite mounting child casualties, the commission said. This indicates that such attacks, which killed children in such high numbers, were intentional, the commission added.