UN Probe: Israel's 'Deliberate Targeting' of Children Part of Ongoing Gaza 'Genocide'

United Nations investigators have accused Israel of deliberately targeting children in Gaza, a practice they say is a key factor in an ongoing "genocide." The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry stated Tuesday that it found evidence of Israeli security forces deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children.

This deliberate targeting, the commission said, is a key factor in establishing "the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza." The three-member team, which does not represent the UN itself, previously concluded in a September report that Israel had committed "genocide" in the Gaza war, a finding Israel rejected.

“

Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces.

In its latest report, the commission noted the intense scale and systematic nature of Israeli military operations, which have resulted in the "unprecedented" death, injury, and trauma of Palestinian children. The investigators found "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Israeli authorities and security forces "have continued to commit the crime of genocide" in Gaza.

Israel, which has a history of criticizing the commission, called the report "defamatory" and a "libelous sham." Israel accused the investigators of ignoring "the brutal tactics of Hamas, which ruthlessly attacks Israeli children and uses Palestinian children as human shields."

“

the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza.

The commission, established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, also examined how living conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza were "resulting in preventable mortality of children." The team stated that severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation, and the collapse of education and healthcare have "erased childhood" in Gaza and will have lifelong effects.

“

reasonable grounds to conclude that Israel's authorities and security forces have continued to commit the crime of genocide in Gaza.

"By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future," said Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the inquiry. He added that children continue to be killed and seriously injured even after the October ceasefire.

The report follows a UNICEF statement that at least 265 children were killed and hundreds more wounded in Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect. UNICEF reported children were killed by shooting, bombing, and quadcopters, and died in tents, schools, while playing football, or fishing. The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, resulted in 1,221 deaths in Israel, according to AFP figures.

“

defamatory and a libelous sham.