UN Commission finds Israel committed war crimes against Palestinian children, recommends arms restriction

Jun 28, 2026 News

(Kaieteur News) – A United Nations independent inquiry has concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank over a two-year period, finding evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conduct that further substantiates a prior finding on genocide.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel presented its findings at a press conference in Geneva, recommending that the UN General Assembly call on member states to prohibit all military-related trade with Israel and impose sanctions for violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Commission member Chris Sidoti addressed the Israeli public directly, centering the human cost of the documented conduct. “What kind of people are your soldiers who would allow a 14-year-old child to bleed to death over a 45-minute period?” he asked. “What kind of people are your military leaders that would inculcate a culture where soldiers feel free to do this, acting with total impunity?”

UN Commission finds Israel committed war crimes against Palestinian children, recommends arms restriction

The Israeli army orders all Palestinian civilians to leave Gaza City as it strikes the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) [Hatem Khaled/Reuters]

Sidoti, a lawyer, underscored the breadth of the legal violations. “There is no doubt whatsoever, there can be no doubt in anyone who reads today’s report, that every international legal norm has been violated by the actions of the Israeli authorities towards Palestinian children, and they need to be held accountable.”

Commission Chair Srinivasan Muralidhar said the evidence points to a deliberate strategy extending beyond battlefield decisions. Israeli forces, he stated, have “deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children and destroyed their childhood” with the effect and intent of undermining Palestinian demographic vitality and the right to self-determination.

Between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2025, children accounted for approximately 27 percent of those killed or wounded in Gaza. The Commission found that Israeli forces repeatedly deployed high-payload munitions and wide-area explosive weapons in densely populated residential areas over this two-year period without modifying weapon selection or targeting criteria, despite full knowledge that children were present. The Commission concluded that the resulting casualties were both foreseeable and intentional, constituting violations of the international humanitarian law principles of distinction and proportionality.

The report identifies distinct vulnerabilities across age groups: newborns and infants face acute threats from malnutrition and a collapsed healthcare system; school-aged children have experienced prolonged disruption to education; and adolescents face heightened protection risks, including arbitrary detention.

The Commission found Israel violated a range of rights guaranteed to Palestinian children under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention Against Torture, including the right to life, prohibition against torture and cruel treatment, liberty and security, the right to education, and the right to play and recreation.

The report also found that Israel systematically confiscated and withheld the bodies of killed Palestinian children, a practice the Commission said violates customary international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and constitutes a profound dehumanization of the victims and their families.

Under international humanitarian law, Israel as the occupying power bears a particular obligation to protect civilians, and especially children, in both Gaza and the West Bank. The Commission found those obligations have been violated on multiple fronts, including failures to protect children from sexual violence, to ensure access to food, shelter, healthcare and education, and to prevent and prosecute settler violence against children.

The Commission called on the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution requiring member states to halt all two-way military-related trade with Israel, and to convene a session reviewing Israel’s compliance with a prior General Assembly resolution on implementing the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 advisory opinion on Israeli practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

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arms restriction, crimes against humanity, genocide, Israel, Palestinian children, UN Commission, war crimes

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