There is evidence Palestinian children were deliberately killed, showing genocidal intent, a new report says. Israel denies the claims
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenReutersPublished: 6:45pm, 23 Jun 2026Israeli 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, an independent UN inquiry said on Tuesday.
The report by the UN 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.
Around 30 per cent of those killed in the Gaza war were children, the report found.
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, accusations that Israel called scandalous.
Israel’s mission in Geneva said Israel rejected what it called the Commission’s “second defamatory advocacy report”.
“Israel dismisses this libellous sham,” it said in a statement, adding that “every child deserves protection” and asserting that the report ignored “the brutal tactics of Hamas”.
