Israeli forces continue to commit acts amounting to genocide against Palestinians in Gaza through the deliberate targeting of children, an independent United Nations Commission of Inquiry said in a report published on Tuesday.The commission, which last year concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, said ongoing Israeli military operations have inflicted “unprecedented death, injury and trauma” on Palestinian children across the enclave.’According to the report, Israel has continued carrying out airstrikes over the past eight months, killing more than 1,000 Palestinians, including over 250 children, citing figures from the Palestinian ministry of health.The report said children accounted for about 30 per cent of those killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.It follows a previous report by the UN commission published last year, which concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that Israeli officials, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had incited such acts. Netanyahu is also the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes.The commission said the alleged deliberate targeting of children is a key indicator of what it described as Israel’s genocidal intent toward the Palestinian people, adding that such actions continued even after a ceasefire took effect in Gaza.“Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law,” Srinivasan Muralidhar, chairman of the commission was quoted as saying by CNN. The report says conditions imposed on Gaza since the ceasefire, including continued attacks and restrictions on humanitarian and medical aid, have caused “multi-layered harm to Palestinian children’s survival, health and development.”It also documents what it describes as a systematic pattern of Israeli strikes on hospitals, health clinics and reproductive healthcare facilities, warning of severe short- and long-term consequences for the physical and psychological wellbeing of children.The Israeli government has repeatedly rejected allegations of genocide and swiftly condemned the UN commission’s latest findings.Israel’s foreign ministry dismissed the report as “a propaganda piece as outrageous as its previous ones,” while Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, described it as a “political blood libel disguised as a UN document.”The US-backed ceasefire brokered in October ended two years of war in Gaza, although the report stated that “hostilities did not cease but rather were reduced.”Israel has accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire and refusing to disarm. The report noted that much of Gaza’s population remains displaced in tents, while Israel continues to restrict the entry of reconstruction materials and heavy equipment, citing Hamas’s refusal to lay down its arms.Under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, an international security force was expected to deploy to Gaza as Israel gradually withdrew. However, the report said Israel has expanded its territorial control, with Netanyahu stating that Israeli forces now control 70 per cent of the enclave.
