Drones and decomposing babies: What's in UN report on Israel's genocide of Palestinian children
Submitted by
Sondos Asem
on
Thu, 06/25/2026 - 12:55
Israel has killed over 20,000 Palestinian children since 7 October 2023. The UN has detailed instances of torture, rape and murder in a landmark report
Wounded children wait for medical care at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on 25 May 2026 (AFP)
Off
Israeli forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children as a central element of their genocide in Gaza, the UN's top investigative body on Palestine and Israel concluded this week.
The finding comes in an 88-page report examining the full scope of harm inflicted on children since 7 October 2023, from precision shootings by snipers and drones to torture in detention, reproductive violence and the destruction of schools and hospitals.
"The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces," said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel.
"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," the Indian lawyer and judge said.
The commission, which previously concluded that Israel bore responsibility for genocide in Gaza, found that children were targeted in two ways: directly, through precision weapons including quadcopters and sniper rifles, and indirectly, through the systematic destruction of the conditions necessary for their survival.
It named specific Israeli military units responsible for killings and urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prioritise crimes against children in its ongoing investigation.
Below, we highlight the report's key findings.
At least 20,179 children killed
Between the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023 and 7 October 2025, Israeli military operations killed at least 20,179 children and wounded 44,143 others in Gaza, representing 30 percent of those killed and 26 percent of those injured.
Children under five accounted for at least 5,031 of the deaths, including 1,029 under the age of one and around 420 newborns.
A further 5,160 children are estimated to be buried under rubble.
The commission noted that the true figure is certainly higher, as many deaths went unrecorded.
Children shot in a deliberate pattern
The commission investigated and documented a consistent pattern of Israeli forces deliberately targeting children using precision weapons.
Seventeen medical practitioners who worked across different hospitals in Gaza described treating large numbers of children with single gunshot wounds to the head and upper body, fired by Israeli snipers or quadcopters.
One doctor said the pattern suggested Israeli soldiers were "deliberately shooting teenage boys in a game of target practice".
The commission forensically analysed 15 out of 17 cases brought by doctors. In 12 of those cases, the wounds were consistent with a single gunshot.
Among the specific cases documented:
On 29 January 2024, Israeli forces shot and killed five-year-old girl Hind Rajab in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City, along with six of her family members.
Five-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab was shot and killed by Israeli forces (Supplied)
When two Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics drove to rescue her, Israeli forces shelled their ambulance and killed them too. The commission concluded the 401st Brigade of the 162nd Division deliberately shot the family and obstructed the medical rescue.
On 24 January 2024, Israeli soldiers shot dead a 15-year-old boy in Khan Younis while he held a white flag, stepping out of his family home following an Israeli evacuation order. When his 20-year-old brother ran to help him, Israeli soldiers shot him too. The commission found the 98th Division was operating in the area and concluded the shooting was deliberate.
An Israeli quadcopter operator shot a 10-day-old baby boy in the head while his mother was breastfeeding
On 12 April 2024, an Israeli quadcopter operator shot a 10-day-old baby boy in the head while his mother was breastfeeding him inside a tent in Nuseirat camp. The baby survived but now suffers from seizures. The commission concluded the operator had a clear view inside the tent before firing.
On 24 August 2024, an Israeli quadcopter operator shot a four-year-old girl in the head while she was eating with her family in their tent in Khan Younis. She survived but her left side was paralysed. The commission concluded she was deliberately targeted.
On 10 December 2024, an Israeli sniper shot an eight-year-old boy in the buttock while he was playing outside in the Bureij refugee camp. The bullet lodged in his abdomen wall. Surgeons removed a 3cm bullet. The commission found the 99th Division was operating in the area and assessed the boy was hit by an Israeli sniper rifle.
Children shot at food distribution sites
From May 2025, Israeli soldiers shot children at or near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites.
Several doctors told the commission they treated children with gunshot wounds sustained there.
A GHF truck driver who spent seven weeks in Gaza told investigators he witnessed two teenagers shot in the head by Israeli soldiers while sprinting away. One soldier was overheard remarking that "fingers are light on the trigger".
Children killed after ceasefire
The October 2025 ceasefire did not stop Israeli forces from killing children. The commission documented more than 100 children killed and hundreds more wounded in the weeks that followed.
Israeli forces redeployed to a newly established demarcation line inside Gaza known as the yellow line, shooting civilians including children who crossed it while trying to return to their homes or collect firewood.
Death toll in Gaza surpasses 73,000 as Israel continues post-ceasefire killings
Read More »
On 29 November 2025, Israeli forces from the Kfir Brigade fired a drone strike that killed two brothers aged nine and ten near Bani Suheila in southern Gaza while they were gathering firewood for their wheelchair-bound father.
Israeli forces claimed the boys were suspects crossing the yellow line. The commission found the claim baseless: the boys were more than 300 metres from Israeli soldiers, were visibly children collecting wood, and the drone operator had an unobstructed view of them before firing.
On 10 December 2025, Israeli soldiers shot a 16-year-old boy from Jabalia camp and an Israeli tank then ran over his body.
213 children killed in West Bank
Israeli forces killed 213 Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between 7 October 2023 and 20 October 2025. The commission found that Israeli forces systematically targeted boys there as a distinct group, labelling them as "terrorists" or "future terrorists".
On 25 January 2025, soldiers from the Israeli Menashe Brigade shot a two-year-old girl in the back of the head while she was having dinner with her family in south Jenin. She died immediately and is the youngest child killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since 7 October 2023.
Palestinian children near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, 22 April 2026 (Mohammed Torokman/Reuters)
On 28 January 2025, soldiers from the Israeli Ephraim Brigade shot a 10-year-old boy at his father's house during a military incursion in Tulkarm.
CCTV footage showed the boy was unarmed. Israeli soldiers delayed the ambulance taking him to hospital for 30 minutes. One soldier told the boy's father: "I am the one who shot your son. God willing, he will die." The boy died of his wounds on 7 February 2025.
'I am the one who shot your son. God willing, he will die'
– Israeli Ephraim Brigade soldier
On 16 November 2025, soldiers from the Israeli Paratrooper Battalion, operating under the Menashe Brigade, shot a 14-year-old boy during a military raid on the Al-Faraa refugee camp in Tubas.
Israeli soldiers then left him bleeding on the ground for 45 minutes while standing around him. One soldier filmed him on his phone while another placed a stone next to him, in what the commission assessed was an attempt to frame the shooting as a response to stone throwing. Israeli soldiers also pointed gun laser sights at the heads of paramedics to prevent them from reaching the boy, who died.
Israeli authorities withheld his body.
Settlers attacked and abducted children
In the first half of 2025, Israeli settlers carried out more than 1,000 attacks across 230 Palestinian communities.
In April 2025, two settlers abducted two siblings under five years old at knifepoint while they were playing outside their home, dragged them to an olive grove and tied them to a tree.
In August 2024, armed settlers abducted two 15-year-old boys herding cattle, beat them, blindfolded them, stripped them, and sexually assaulted them. A settler urinated on one of the boys and fractured his leg.
Children tortured and sexually abused
Israeli forces have detained over 1,655 children in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, 600 of them in 2025 alone.
As of 31 December 2025, 51 percent of child detainees were held under administrative detention, meaning imprisonment without charge, a record number.
Israeli soldiers subjected the detained children to beatings, blindfolding, handcuffing, stress positions on gravel, and terror by dogs from the moment of arrest. Israeli prison authorities denied children food, water and medical care.
‘I wished for death’: Sexual violence in Israel’s prisons is an ‘organised state policy’
Read More »
One 15-year-old boy held at the Sde Teiman facility told the commission he was the only child among 70 adults in his cell. Israeli soldiers entered the cell with dogs and ordered detainees to lie on their stomachs before releasing the animals on them. He described his 23 days there as "the worst days of my life".
Another 15-year-old, detained during mass arrests in Gaza in December 2023, told the commission that Israeli interrogators electrocuted him through a needle inserted into his shoulder, denied him food and water, and forced him into painful positions for up to 12 hours at a time over 54 days before releasing him at the Kerem Shalom crossing with no medical care and no means of reaching his family.
The commission also received testimony that Israeli prison guards raped boys in detention and subjected them to other forms of sexual violence as a systematic component of the detention regime.
On 22 March 2025, a 17-year-old boy from Ramallah died in Megiddo Prison, the commission said. Israeli prison authorities had been aware since December 2024 that he was suffering from head trauma, inadequate food and severe weight loss, but failed to provide proper care.
A post-mortem found he died from severe prolonged malnutrition. Israeli authorities withheld his body from his family for months. The commission found that Israeli prison authorities caused his death and that it amounted to the war crimes of torture, inhuman treatment and wilful killing.
Hospitals and neonatal units destroyed
Israeli forces attacked and forced the closure of all three major paediatric hospitals in Gaza within the first two months of hostilities.
Before October 2023, Gaza had 178 incubators across eight neonatal intensive care units. Israeli attacks and the siege reduced that number to 54 by November 2024. Medical staff described placing three or four infants in a single incubator.
At Al-Nasr Paediatric Hospital, Israeli forces cut electricity and prevented staff from evacuating patients, giving them only 30 minutes to leave. When a ceasefire allowed access weeks later, investigators found four babies decomposing in the neonatal unit, still attached to defunct life-support machines.
The grandmother of baby Idres Al-Dbari, who was killed in an Israeli strike, holds his body at Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital, Rafah, on 12 December 2023 (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)
At least 15 newborns died of preventable hypothermia between December 2024 and February 2025 as a direct result of conditions imposed by the Israeli siege.
Israel's blockade and attacks on reproductive healthcare caused miscarriage rates to increase by up to 300 percent after October 2023.
By October 2024, women in Gaza were three times more likely to die in childbirth than before the war.
By March 2026, 70 percent of newborns were classified as premature or underweight.
Schools bombed, demolished and occupied
Israeli forces directly hit 459 of Gaza's 564 school buildings between 7 October 2023 and October 2025.
Over 97 percent of schools were damaged or destroyed.
'In my childhood, I've always dreamed of blowing up my school. Today I'm blowing up a school. Wow'
– Israeli soldier
Children in Gaza have missed three full school years, and more than 668,000 school-age children were denied access to formal education.
Israeli soldiers filmed themselves demolishing schools and posted the videos online. In one video, a soldier says before blowing up a school: "In my childhood, I've always dreamed of blowing up my school. Today I'm blowing up a school. Wow."
In another, a soldier mocks Palestinian students, saying they will "not be engineers any more".
The commission found that Israeli forces from the 252nd Division carried out controlled demolitions of at least two UN schools in Beit Hanoun in November 2023.
Israeli forces also seized schools and used them as military bases, weapons stores and barracks.
In the West Bank, Israeli authorities issued demolition orders against 85 schools. Israeli forces raided and expelled more than 550 children from three UN schools in Shu'fat Camp in May 2025.
Siege starved children and brought back polio
By October 2025, Unicef reported 151 child deaths from malnutrition caused by Israel's siege and blockade. July 2025 was the deadliest month, with 24 children under five dying from malnutrition.
Israel's blockade also halted a fourth round of polio vaccinations for 600,000 children planned for April 2025. Polio returned to Gaza in August 2024 after 25 years of eradication. It was confirmed in a 10-month-old baby who, a year later, was still unable to stand or move his legs.
Soldiers destroyed children's belongings
The commission documented at least 35 instances of Israeli soldiers filming themselves in Palestinian homes, schools and public spaces destroying or mocking children's toys, trophies and belongings, and posting the footage online.
In one video, an Israeli soldier rides a child's wooden toy horse in a wrecked apartment. In another, Israeli soldiers hang a teddy bear by its neck from a tank barrel.
The commission concluded these acts were not isolated but reflected a deliberate culture of dehumanisation across different units and time periods, with no disciplinary action taken by Israeli military commanders.
The legal findings
The commission concluded on reasonable grounds that Israeli authorities and security forces have continued to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the West Bank.
On genocide, the commission found that Israeli forces' deliberate targeting of children is one of the key elements establishing genocidal intent. Children embody the biological and social continuity of the Palestinian group. The commission found that Israeli forces killed children, caused them serious bodily and mental harm, and deliberately imposed conditions of life calculated to destroy them as part of the broader Palestinian group in Gaza.
She survived an Israeli raid that left babies decomposing. Now she awaits treatment
Read More »
On crimes against humanity, the commission found that Israeli forces' killings and maiming of children amount to extermination and murder. Their mistreatment of children in detention amounts to torture and other inhumane acts.
On war crimes, the commission found wilful killing, torture and inhuman treatment, sexual violence, intentional attacks on civilian objects including hospitals, schools and orphanages, and the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
The commission named specific Israeli military units responsible for killings in individual cases and called for accountability for those with command responsibility. Israel did not respond to any of the commission's 13 requests for information or access.
Israel's genocide in Gaza
News
Post Date Override
0
Update Date
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19
Update Date Override
0