A UN Commission of Inquiry has found Israeli forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, their actions amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. Stephanie Tran reports.
In a report released today, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel found that Palestinian children had been subjected to targeted killing, starvation, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention and repeated displacement.
The Commission found that “much of the harm suffered by Palestinian children was not incidental but
intended to destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group.
It said the “sheer number” of cases it investigated showing children were directly targeted by Israeli forces constituted “a key element” in demonstrating genocidal intent from Israeli authorities.
The report also makes reference to its 2024 findings on “violations and abuses against Israeli childen committed by the military wing of Hamas”. It found “Israeli children were subjected to physical and emotional mistreatment on 7 October 2023.” In addition, 40 children were killed and hundreds injured, with many children losing one or both parents.
“Many children witnessed the killings of their parents and siblings and were also filmed for propaganda purposes by Palestinian armed groups.”
‘Children deliberately targeted’
The Commission found that Israeli security forces have directly targeted Palestinian children with the intention to kill them.
“Israeli security forces have consistently, directly and intentionally targeted individual children across Gaza during evacuations, in shelters and designated safe zones, at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites and after the ceasefire agreement in and around the so-called ‘yellow line’.”
The report found that children had been targeted “from newborns to adolescents” and that in some cases children were shot while holding white flags.
The Commission said evidence including precision gunfire, injury patterns and the use of sniper rifles, drones and quadcopters capable of visually identifying targets indicated deliberate targeting.
Speaking to MWM, Commissioner Chris Sidoti said the documented deaths represented only a portion of children killed during the genocide.
“We have seen over 20,000 children killed directly as a result of the violence,” he said.
“That does not include children who have not been identified, those who are buried under the rubble, those whose bodies have not been identified, those who have simply disappeared and are counted as missing.”
Sidoti said the figures also excluded children who had died from disease, starvation and the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system.
“There are tens of thousands more children who have died as a consequence of this fighting,” he said.
He said some children had been deliberately targeted by snipers and drones.
We know of snipers and of quadcopters that have killed children, deliberately targeting the children, not killing anybody else around them.
Sexual violence against children
The Commission found that sexual and gender-based violence was being used “in the context of detention and arrests as a method of warfare and intimidation against Palestinian children”.
“Sexual violence against Palestinian children in Israeli detention is not exceptional but a systematic, state-enabled assault on their bodies and their dignity and deliberately meted out to cause humiliation,” the report states.
The Commission documented cases of forced public nudity, sexual assault, genital violence and sexual threats against children in detention.
Sidoti said some forms of abuse amounted to torture.
“Sexual violence itself is common, but it is not always used for the purposes of torture,” he said.
“A part of the sexual violence that we saw involved the stripping of children in public, their humiliation, and what, under Australian law and international law, constitutes child abuse.”
The Commission concluded that sexual violence against Palestinian children constituted both war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It further found that sexual violence “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.
Deliberate starvation and healthcare destruction
The Commission concluded that Israel had committed the war crime of wilful killing and the crime against humanity of extermination by intentionally using starvation as a method of warfare and depriving children of essential medical care.
The report found that Israel has “intentionally inflicted these conditions of life, in particular on Palestinian infants, children and young persons in Gaza”.
Attacks on hospitals, neonatal wards and maternity services, combined with shortages of fuel, medicine and medical equipment, have caused the deaths of newborns and seriously harmed pregnant women and infants.
Sidoti said the findings reinforced the Commission’s previous conclusions that Israeli actions in Gaza amounted to genocide.
“Our findings in relation to children confirmed those findings,” he told MWM.
He pointed to attacks on hospitals, neonatal and paediatric services and the destruction of medical equipment.
All of these things indicate an intent that children should die, and that means for us reinforcement of our findings in relation to genocide.
Destruction of schools
The Commission concluded “Israeli security forces have intentionally directed attacks against educational facilities, resulting in the denial of Palestinian children’s right to education for present and future generations.”
More than 97% of schools in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.
“The destruction of the education system has been an attack on the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people as a whole,” the report states.
The Commission found that the collapse of education and healthcare systems had caused
irreversible learning loss, neural developmental delays and diminished future opportunities.
The report also documents Israeli soldiers filming themselves destroying children’s toys, playground equipment and personal belongings.
“The confidence of the Israeli soldiers to film themselves in this manner and post the evidence online is a clear reflection of the lack of accountability,” the report states.
Detention, torture and abuse
The Commission found that Palestinian children held by Israeli authorities had experienced prolonged blindfolding, forced stripping, severe beatings, deprivation of food and water, sleep deprivation and denial of medical treatment.
It found a pattern of “severe and deliberate mistreatment” particularly affecting Palestinian boys.
Children were subjected to prolonged kneeling on hard surfaces, attacks targeting their heads, faces and genitals, threats involving dogs and detention alongside adult prisoners.
The Commission concluded that the treatment of detained children constituted the crimes against humanity of torture and other inhumane acts causing serious suffering.
Sidoti said the number of Palestinian children detained by Israeli authorities remained unclear.
“There are significant numbers of children who have been detained by the Israelis. We do not know how many, because the Israelis are not prepared to state that,” he said.
“We don’t know, for example, whether a missing child is in Israeli custody or buried under the rubble.”
West Bank settler violence and killings
The Commission also examined Israeli military operations and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
It found evidence that Palestinian children had been deliberately shot, denied medical treatment and subjected to violence by settlers.
“The Commission has identified a pattern of targeting of Palestinian children in the West Bank, mirroring Israeli practices in Gaza including deliberate shooting of children, particularly of boys. Israeli soldiers target boys, labelled as “terrorists”, on the basis of their male and Palestinian identity, with lethal force.”
The report describes cases in which wounded children were left bleeding while soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching them.
The Commission concluded that Israeli authorities had failed to protect Palestinian children from settler violence.
It concluded that settler violence functioned
not as a deviation from state policy but as a means of implementing it.
“Both the State of Israel and violent settler groups share and collaborate in the same strategic objectives: the entrenchment of Israeli settlement on Palestinian land, annexation of Palestinian territory and the displacement of Palestinian people from their land.”
Chain of command and accountability
Sidoti said the Commission had found responsibility extended beyond individual soldiers.
“We have made that finding that there is a clear chain of command and it does go right to the top,” he said.
“It is not just individual soldiers who are responsible for individual war crimes. … There is a chain of command that means that those at the top have issued clear orders as to the nature of this campaign, the objectives the military are to achieve.”
“Our conclusion on the basis of the evidence that we collected is that that constitutes a genocidal purpose.”
Sidoti said growing international attention had shifted from expressions of concern to discussions about concrete measures by individual states.
“The responsibilities under international law now fall on individual governments and groups of governments to decide what action to take and take it.”
He said governments, including Australia, should consider measures directed not only at individuals but also at institutions.
“We need to address questions of institutions now, and not just individuals who are committing war crimes. That means the Israeli Defense Forces as an institution, the Israeli government as an institution, and the settlements themselves, right across the West Bank, as organized violators of international law” he said.
Israel declines to respond
Sidoti said Israeli authorities had been provided with a draft copy of the report before publication.
“Our procedures require that we give all of our reports to the Israeli authorities in draft form before they’re finalised,” he said.
“The Israeli authorities had a draft of this report two or three weeks ago, and they had an opportunity to comment to us.”
According to Sidoti, Israeli authorities did not provide formal comments to the Commission.
“They did not do so, but instead … they prepared an 18-page rebuttal which they distributed to some diplomatic missions here in Geneva.”
The Commission called on states to ensure accountability for crimes committed against Palestinian children and urged the international community to “employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
MWM asked Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade whether Australia intends to take any action in response to the Commission’s findings.
They have not provided a response in time for the publication of this article.
Ignoring genocide. The bill for Australia’s silence has arrived
Stephanie is a journalist with a background in both law and journalism. She has worked at The Guardian and as a paralegal, where she assisted Crikey’s defence team in the high-profile defamation case brought by Lachlan Murdoch. Her reporting has been recognised nationally, earning her the 2021 Democracy’s Watchdogs Award for Student Investigative Reporting and a nomination for the 2021 Walkley Student Journalist of the Year Award.