Report accuses Israel of targeting children in Gaza

A team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations accused Israel of deliberately shooting children in Gaza and repeated its accusation that Israel has committed genocide in the territory.

- By SAM METZ

Israel vociferously denies claims that it committed genocide during its two and a half years of war in Gaza.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, an investigative body operating under the U.N. Human Rights Council, said in its report Tuesday that roughly 30% of the Palestinians killed from October 2023 to October 2025 — more than 20,000 in total — were children. More children are believed to be missing or buried in unmarked graves.

Israel has denied deliberately targeting civilians and pushed back on accusations, including from rights groups, that it committed genocide in Gaza. Israel's Foreign Ministry called the report a “libelous sham” and said the claims included hadn't been verified. It also criticized the commission as “a fundamentally flawed mechanism whose very purpose is to single out and vilify Israel rather than seek the truth.”