The 94-page long UN report dated June 18, 2026 brings together the findings of UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel on violations and crimes against and affecting Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory from 7 October 2023 until 31 March 2026, with a particular focus on the Gaza Strip (Gaza).
The summary of its findings is under:
329. The conduct of the Israeli authorities, Israeli security forces and Israeli settlers detailed in this report does not constitute mere incidental harm or collateral damage done to Palestinian children. On the contrary, Israeli security forces and Israeli settlers have directly and intentionally targeted Palestinian children in many instances, killing tens of thousands and leaving tens of thousands of others with irreversible harm, including long-term physical and mental harm.
330. Israel continues to blatantly disregard the International Court of Justice advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 in respect of the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and, importantly, the orders for provisional measures issued on 26 January, 28 March 2024 and 24 May 2024426 in the case of the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel), which are binding on Israel.
331. Based on the evidence reviewed, and consistent with its previous reports, the Commission finds on reasonable grounds that the Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces have continued to commit the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
1. War Crimes
332. The Commission finds that Israeli security forces have committed the following war crimes against and affecting Palestinian children, consistent with its findings in previous reports: wilful killing; torture and inhuman and degrading treatment causing severe physical and psychological harm; wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health through deliberate deprivation and violence; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population and individuals not taking direct part in hostilities, including children430; destruction of property; and outrages upon personal dignity, particularly through systematic humiliating and degrading conduct designed to dehumanise and subjugate
the Palestinian population, including children.
II. Crimes against Humanity
333. In previous reports, the Commission has found that the chapeau elements for crimes gainst humanity have been fulfilled in Gaza, namely that attacks by the Israeli security forces since 7 October 2023 have (i) involved “multiple commission of acts”; (ii) directed against any civilian population; (iii) that are widespread or systematic; and (iv) that were committed as part of the attack.
334. The Commission found consistent evidence that indicates a clear pattern of the Israeli security forces intentionally targeting Palestinian children in Gaza. The Commission therefore concludes that killings and maiming of children that it investigated constitute crimes against humanity amounting to extermination, murder and other inhumane acts. These acts also amount to grave violations against children in armed conflict, for which the State of Israel bears responsibility.
335. The Commission investigated and documented severe mistreatment of Palestinian children in detention in harsh conditions. Their injuries indicate causing intentional severe bodily harm, designed to inflict long-term physical and mental damage. The Commission concludes that this constitutes crimes against humanity amounting to torture and other inhuman acts and, as punishment for the 7 October 2023 attacks in southern Israel, amounts to prohibited collective punishment under customary international law.
336. The Commission finds that the Israeli security forces perpetrated age-based persecution against Palestinian children, particularly against boys, intersecting with gender nationality, ethnicity, culture and religion under Rome Statute Article 7 (see paras. 273-274). This is evidenced by deliberate targeting through (i) precision shootings knowingly aimed at children; and (ii) arrests, detention and mistreatment of boys falsely and presumptively labelled as ‘terrorists’ or ‘fighters’ despite age-verifying identity cards. These acts have been part of a widespread, systematic attack constituting the crime against humanity of persecution. In relation to the direct targeting of children where Israeli security forces shot and killed or harmed Palestinian children, such conduct is also part of a strategy or plan to destroy the biological continuity of the Palestinians in Gaza (see further sub-section. III. Genocide).
337. The Commission finds that arrested Palestinian children endured incommunicado detention without access to lawyers or family. Israeli authorities consistently withheld information on their whereabouts and conditions or denied custody altogether. These acts constitute the crime against humanity of enforced disappearance. These acts also amount to abduction as a grave violation against children in armed conflict, for which Israel bears responsibility. Importantly, the Commission highlights that the transfer of detainees outside of the territory is prohibited and amounts to deportation, which is a crime against humanity and a war crime.
III. Genocide
338. In a previous report, the Commission has found that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit four categories of underlying acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinian group, as such. Three of those four categories are especially relevant to children, namely (i) killing members of the group; (ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; and (iii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. Additionally, the Commission has found that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed the fourth category of underlying act of genocide (‘Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group’) with the specific intent to destroy, in part, the Palestinian group, as such, in the Gaza Strip (A/HRC/60/CRP.3). This finding does not apply to children.
Killing of and causing serious bodily and mental harm to Palestinians in Gaza, including children.
Palestinian children in Gaza have been directly targeted in various ways by the Israeli security forces since 7 October 2023, including during evacuations, at shelters, and at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites
340. The Commission has found a clear pattern of conduct since 7 October 2023 showing the Israeli security forces directly targeted Palestinian children in different circumstances with the intention to kill them. In all the cases investigated and documented by the Commission where children were directly targeted, none of the children posed any threat to the Israeli security forces. Medical professionals treated many children with direct gunshot wounds to their head and upper body, indicating the children were shot by snipers or drones or quadcopters. Medical professionals were also informed by parents that the children were alone when they were shot or that the adults who were with the children were completely unharmed.
341. In relation to serious bodily and mental harm, the Commission finds that Palestinian children who were physically and mentally harmed by the Israeli security forces’ military operations will continue to suffer from long-term harm of such a serious nature that may impede – and has actually impeded – their ability to lead a constructive life, and that that result was reasonably foreseeable. Importantly, such impacts have materialised, as detailed above; yet, children were continuously targeted by the Israeli security forces.
342. The Commission finds that Israeli security forces have inflicted severe, irreversible bodily harm on Palestinian children, including causing severe physical and psychological injury, traumatising children and creating a generation of orphaned, separated and unaccompanied children as well as children with permanent disabilities, through targeted violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, and systemic deprivation. Tens of thousands of children have sustained injuries from bombings, intentional shooting, collapsing buildings, lack of medical care and denial of access to adequate nutritious food and safe water, causing polytrauma, amputations, burns and long-lasting disabilities requiring multiple surgeries. The destruction of hospitals, scarcity of medicine and medical supplies and siege-induced starvation have made recovery incredibly difficult and continue to prevent recovery. Malnutrition and diseases have further weakened their bodies and immune systems, making even minor illnesses potentially life-threatening. These physical harms are compounded by children’s daily struggle for survival in unsafe and overcrowded conditions.
343. The Commission has previously established that the Israeli security forces inflicted sexual violence with the intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza, in whole or in part. The Commission finds that sexual violence committed against Palestinian children constitutes part of the genocidal act of causing serious bodily and mental harm. Such deliberate violence was intended not only to cause immediate and long-term harm to the individual children but to target and destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza, because children embody the group’s biological continuity and collective survival.
344. In its previous report, the Commission has found that Palestinians who were physically and mentally harmed by the Israeli security forces’ military operations will continue to suffer from long-term harm of such a serious nature that they will no longer be able to lead a normal and constructive life. The Commission finds that the impact of such harm on children is profoundly graver. The mental harm on children is as devastating, widespread and irreversible as the physical injury they endured. Continuous exposure to explosions, loss of family members, denial of health care and schooling, and uncertainty about safety have inflicted deep emotional wounds. Many experience nightmares, anxiety, depression and signs of traumatic stress from witnessing and enduring violence. Compounded by absence of stable schooling, safe spaces or consistent psychological support, children in Gaza are growing up in an environment where fear and grief have become part of everyday life. This continuing trauma, even after the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, has not only affected children’s current well-being but threatens to shape the mental and emotional development of many future generations.
345. The Commission has found in a previous report that (i) the extensive and deliberate targeting of Palestinians, including children, showed that the military operations were not conducted solely to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups as Israeli officials claimed, nor can they legitimately contribute to the other stated goals of defending the state of Israel and securing the release of Israeli hostages; and (ii) the direct and intentional targeting of Palestinian children was intended to physically destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza.
346. The targeting of Palestinian children is central to establishing genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza. The Commission notes that the ‘intent to destroy’ does not mean that such destruction needs to have occurred; however, specific intent may be established based on the totality of the evidence, through the pattern of conduct of the Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces, including when the targeting of children continued despite clear warnings and, importantly, even when the foreseeable impacts of such targeting have been actualised. Children are not just part of a population; their survival is central to the existence and continuity of the Palestinian group. The sheer number of cases investigated and documented by the Commission showing a clear pattern that children were directly targeted by the Israeli security forces constitutes a key element in the Israeli authorities’ genocidal intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza.
347. The Commission finds that the killing of and serious bodily and mental harm inflicted upon Palestinian children was part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group in Gaza. The Commission therefore reiterates its conclusion that the Israeli authorities and the Israeli security forces have committed the crime of genocide in Gaza by killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, including Palestinian children, therein.
Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, including children
348. The conditions of life imposed by Israel on the Palestinian group in Gaza, including children, constitute a deliberate and systematic infliction of harm calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza as a group. The sustained blockade, recurrent bombardments and deliberate obstruction of humanitarian access have deprived the population of essential means of survival, including adequate food, clean water, fuel, medical care and safe shelter, with especially severe impacts on children. Civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, sanitation systems and educational facilities, has been repeatedly and intentionally targeted and destroyed. Schools have been struck during periods of active use
as shelters and learning spaces. The systematic attacks on educational institutions have not only deprived children of their right to education but have also directly caused death and injury, rendering these facilities places of danger rather than safety.
349. In Gaza, births rates have decreased amid increasing neonatal risks, including newborn deaths, surge in premature and underweight infants, and congenital defects in newborns requiring intensive care.460 Different organizations, including this Commission, have highlighted evidence of the effects of the violence in Gaza and the siege on newborns and children under two years. Israel had sufficient actual and constructive notice of these effects and yet Israel has continued to impose and maintain measures in Gaza that have resulted in causing adverse pregnancy and birthing outcomes. The harm caused by Israel is thus both intended as an accepted consequence and a clearly foreseeable result of the sustained measures imposed by Israel in Gaza, including deprivation and health system collapse resulting from Israel’s blockade, total siege, and bombardment. Therefore, Israel has imposed and maintained measures on Gaza which have systematically restricted and diminished the survival capacities and health of Palestinian newborns, who have been rendered especially vulnerable by the cumulative effects of Israel’s systemic violence and siege.
350. The Commission also found that, in relation to the total siege imposed on Gaza, the following factors indicate the Israeli authorities’ intention to impose conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction of the Palestinian group in Gaza, including children, thus establishing a genocidal intent: (i) the nature of the siege imposed, its duration and the vulnerability of Palestinians in Gaza, especially children, who are dependent on the humanitarian aid blocked by Israel; (ii) Israeli awareness of the objective probability that the conduct would lead, and has actually led, to the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza as a group, at least in part; (iii) the continuation of the siege despite warnings, including the flagrant disregard of binding orders of the International Court of Justice; and (iv) the entrapment of Palestinians in Gaza, ensuring they cannot escape the violence and intended destruction of the group.
351. The cumulative effect of these acts, including attacks against health systems and essential civilian infrastructure, amounts to the intentional destruction of the foundations required for children’s survival and development. Israeli political and military authorities have created living conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the physical growth and intellectual development of children and the holistic environment necessary for children’s well-being. They have acted to promote the physical and psychological destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza, including children. The foreseeability and consistency of these effects clearly indicate both knowledge and intent regarding their destructive outcome upon the Palestinian group in Gaza, including children. Having assessed as a whole, taking into account the nature and duration of these acts, their foreseeable consequences and the prolonged denial of remedial measures, the Commission reiterates its finding that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part, with specific intent to destroy the group, as such.
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