ISRAEL is continuing to target children in Gaza, according to a damning new United Nations report published today.

The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory says the deliberate killing of Palestinian children by Israeli forces amounts to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The report finds that around 30 per cent of people killed in Gaza since the Israeli invasion began in October 2023 were children.

Israel’s targeting of neonatal and maternity care centres during its war in Gaza directly endangered Palestinians’ reproductive future and the survival of newborns, the document notes.

The attacks have driven a rise in miscarriages, birth defects and lasting vulnerabilities, the report alleges. 

It also finds that the Gaza aid blockade enforced by Israel last year caused starvation-related deaths and a rise in disease as immunisation rates fell.

Commission chairman Srinivasan Muralidhar said: “The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces.”

In a September 2025 report, the commission concluded that there were reasonable grounds to determine that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

More than 50,000 children have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since Israel began its war on Gaza, according to UN children’s agency Unicef.

The agency says that, on average, one Palestinian child has been killed in Gaza every day since the so-called “ceasefire” took effect last October, more than eight months ago.

The UN report also notes that Israeli forces have destroyed orphanages and education facilities in the occupied West Bank, which has affected Palestinian children’s cognitive, social and emotional care and development.

Mr Muralidhar said: “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.”