U.N. Report on Targeted Genocide of Children in Gaza and the West Bank
“Children are entitled to all the rights of human beings, as well as rights held by them alone as children” – Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
On June 18th the U.N. Human Rights Council released a 94-page report outlining the barbarity of our current times. Israeli security forces are the leading cause of death and injury, and for its crimes against children, in the occupied Palestinian territories.
While western politicians and news pundits hypocritically condemn Iran for its decaying ethics against its citizens, they simultaneously provide endless political cover and weaponry to a lunatic Israeli regime actively carrying out a holocaust in the besieged Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Summary of the U.N. Report
“The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examines violations and crimes against and affecting Palestinian children, including serious physical and psychological harm by the Israeli security forces since 7 October 2023 resulting in the death of at least 20,179 and injury of 44,143 children.
The paper describes the deliberate targeting and killing of Palestinian children, including post-ceasefire since the October 2025 Gaza peace plan. The Commission also examines a sharp increase in violence perpetrated by members of Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” – The Report
The Devastating Impact on Gaza’s Children
Until October 7, 2023, roughly half of the population in Gaza was under the age of 18. These children had always lived under Israeli occupation, experiencing multiple instances of brutality and trauma. Over 20,000 children have been killed (more uncounted under the rubble), and another 44,000 injured as a direct result of deliberate targeting of children by Israeli security forces.
Israel’s Legal Obligations to Protect Children
Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, (CRC), which Israel signed and ratified, Israel is to “respect and ensure all rights in the Convention to every child within its jurisdiction, without discrimination of any kind, including on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, disability, gender, religion or other status.”
Israel has extensive duties, not only to protect civilians, but especially children. This means Israel must ensure the provision of adequate food and water, medical supplies, functioning hospitals, and support of relief organizations to meet the needs of children. Israel is prohibited from imposing suffering and deprivation policies that directly affect children.
Israel, on the other hand, has denied any legal responsibility for Palestinian children under the CRC. The UN Committee has regretted Israel’s position, characterizing it as a repeated denial of Israel’s obligations to protect Palestinian children.
Systematic Targeting, Detention, Starvation, and Destruction of Healthcare
It’s a fact that all Palestinian children, including infants, and boys especially, are targeted due to their perceived threat as future terrorists. Israeli soldiers deliberately shoot teenage boys in a game of target practice, aiming at various parts of their bodies. Each day the soldiers target a different organ of the boy’s body, as doctors treating their injuries are reporting.
The Commission also found that the arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance of adolescent Palestinian boys amounts to crimes against humanity. Israel has implemented a policy of enforced disappearances of children by removing them from Gaza and keeping them in confinement without the ability to communicate.
“The Commission found that arbitrary and unlawful arrest and detention of children, and their transfer to military barracks and detention facilities, were carried out as a collective punishment for the October 7th 2023 attacks. The Commission considers that such acts also constitute ‘abduction’ of Palestinian children from Gaza, a grave violation against children in armed conflict under international humanitarian law.”
While in these detention facilities, the children, especially boys, have been tortured and routinely subjected to physical, sexual and gender-based violence, causing severe physical and mental trauma.
Israel uses starvation as a weapon of war, producing acute malnutrition among children.
Israel’s use of starvation as a method of war has caused severe reproductive harms to women and girls, impacting all aspects of reproduction, including pregnancy, childbirth, post-partum recovery, breastfeeding, as well as adversely impacting the health of newborns.
Israel targeted schools and hospitals including pediatric and neonatal and maternity facilities. Injured children have undergone procedures, including amputations, without anesthesia, sterile conditions, or post operative care. The children of Gaza now have the highest concentration of child amputees in the world.
If you read the full UN Report on Israel’s targeted genocide of Palestinian children, there is no way to continue to ignore the fact that the United States government is responsible, not only for allowing Israel to continue the brutality and murder of children, but also supplying Israel with our taxpayer funds and weapons to carry out the genocide. Funding Israel must stop.
The next time you vote for a U.S. Senator or Representative, please check to see if they are accepting AIPAC funding or any other pro-Israel campaign contributions. Its time to support an anti-genocide policy in the U.S. We will not stand for targeted genocide of Palestinian children by Israel.
