Published 5 November 2026. This article reviews the UN Commission of Inquiry’s June 2026 report on Palestinian children, dated 18 June and publicly launched on 23 June. Its investigation covers 7 October 2023 through 31 March 2026, across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with particular focus on Gaza. Paragraphs 1–6, printed page 3.
The Commission concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces continued to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Its central finding is that much of the harm to Palestinian children was deliberately inflicted, and that targeting their survival and development formed part of destroying the Palestinian group’s future. Paragraph 331, printed page 76. Paragraphs 352–354, printed pages 80–81.
Content note: This is a non-graphic account of findings concerning children killed, injured, detained, abused and deprived of essential care. Survivor identities and humiliating images are withheld. The purpose is to understand the evidence, preserve dignity and explain the accountability the Commission calls for.
1. What the report means by the destruction of childhood
The document is A/HRC/62/CRP.2, authored by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. Readers can open its official UN record and read the complete paper. The references throughout this review identify its numbered paragraphs and printed pages.
The report’s title is “The essence of childhood has been destroyed”: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023. Its 94 pages examine more than deaths during individual attacks. They connect physical injury to the loss of parents, healthcare, schooling, food, shelter, play and a dependable sense of safety. The question is whether children can survive and develop, and what happens when the systems that make that possible are repeatedly dismantled. Paragraphs 1–2, printed page 3. Paragraphs 352–353, printed page 80.
This is an assessment by an independent, UN-mandated investigative Commission. It is not a judgment by the International Court of Justice or a criminal conviction by the International Criminal Court. The Commission uses a reasonable-grounds investigative standard and presents evidence and legal findings that can inform further accountability. Its conclusion is nevertheless explicit: the harm it documented included intentional targeting and continuing atrocity crimes, rather than only unintended consequences of combat. Paragraph 8, printed page 4. Paragraphs 329–331, printed page 76.
Children are treated throughout as people with rights of their own. Their safety does not depend on the political allegiance of their parents, the neighbourhood they live in or assumptions about who they might become. The Commission’s analysis asks how military practices, detention systems and deprivation affected those rights at different ages—from newborn survival to adolescents’ freedom, education and relationships. Paragraphs 13–16, printed pages 5–6. Paragraphs 264–265, printed pages 60–61.
2. How the Commission investigated—and protected children’s privacy
The inquiry combined earlier investigations with new and expanded findings. Investigators collected and verified thousands of open-source items, conducted remote and in-person interviews and group discussions, and received information from clinicians, journalists, lawyers and academics. Medical records, photographs, video, audio and CT scans formed part of the record. Two independent forensic pathologists reviewed evidence concerning children who had been shot, alongside digital verification including geolocation and time analysis. Paragraphs 6–10, printed pages 3–4.
The methods also reflect the danger of asking a child to relive an attack or abuse. The Commission obtained appropriate adult consent and children’s informed consent or assent, and applied the principles of best interests and doing no harm. When direct contact risked serious retraumatization, it used credible material already collected by other organizations and assessed published evidence. Some sources remain confidential, with the complete source list held by the Commission. Paragraphs 8–10, printed page 4.
The report says Israel did not answer thirteen requests for information or access made since October 2023; Palestinian authorities and Gaza’s Health Ministry supplied information. A separate public Israeli response to the draft is discussed below. The Commission also identifies unfinished work, including reports of parties using children in the conflict. Its earlier investigations into Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups found war crimes and crimes against humanity against Israeli children and child hostages. Paragraphs 3–5, printed page 3. Paragraph 11, printed page 4.
3. The scale of loss, with the dates kept visible
For the two years ending 7 October 2025, the Commission cited Gaza Health Ministry figures reported by OCHA recording at least 20,179 children killed and 44,143 injured in Gaza. Children accounted for approximately thirty percent of reported deaths in that period. Among the children killed were 5,031 under five, including 1,029 under one and some 420 newborns. Those age groups overlap: they describe how young many victims were, rather than separate totals to add together. Paragraphs 26–27, printed page 8.
These are historical, attributed figures with a different cutoff from the report’s March 2026 endpoint. The paper’s footnote also carries a later UNICEF-reported snapshot through 3 February 2026: 21,289 children killed and 44,500 injured. The dates matter because a reader should be able to distinguish what was known at each stage. Neither snapshot is presented here as a current November 2026 tally. Paragraph 26, footnote 29, printed page 8.
Recorded fatalities also cannot fully describe missing children, unmarked graves or bodies that could not be recovered. The Commission discusses a separate Save the Children estimate of children buried beneath rubble, alongside unknown numbers missing. An estimate about unrecovered children is different from an identified-fatalities record. Behind that uncertainty are families unable to obtain even the certainty of a death, a burial or the location of a loved one. Paragraphs 27–28, printed pages 8–9.
4. Explosive weapons, lasting injuries and danger left in the rubble
The report links high child casualties to explosive weapons with wide-area effects used in densely populated neighbourhoods and to expanded targeting criteria without adequate precautions. A child’s smaller body, thinner skin and developing organs make blasts particularly dangerous. Heavy bombardment of homes also strikes family networks at once: the people who would ordinarily carry an injured child to care may themselves be dead, injured or trapped. Paragraphs 29–32, printed page 9.
Survival can begin years of treatment. The Commission describes children with multiple simultaneous injuries, vision or hearing loss, damage to the brain or spine, and amputations requiring repeated surgery as they grow. It also describes children who already had disabilities losing access to wheelchairs, hearing aids, batteries and essential services. Disability changes what safe evacuation and recovery require; both depend on accessible support, continuity of care and family assistance. Paragraphs 41–43, printed page 12. Paragraphs 44–47, printed pages 12–13.
The danger remains in unexploded ammunition after an area becomes quieter. The report describes twins injured in October 2025 after mistaking an explosive object for a toy. Recovery therefore requires more than clearing space for tents or reopening a road. It requires identifying explosive hazards, making homes and play areas safe, providing rehabilitation and supporting children’s independence. The paper’s account of long-term disability shows how the consequences extend far beyond the date of an attack. Paragraph 34, printed page 10. Paragraph 357, printed page 82.
5. After the ceasefire: children and the “yellow line”
The ceasefire that took effect on 10 October 2025 reduced hostilities, but the Commission found that children continued to be killed and injured. It cited UNICEF’s report that, by 13 January 2026, more than one hundred children had been killed since early October. A major concern was the “yellow line”: the internal demarcation separating areas under Israeli military control from the rest of Gaza, with civilians prohibited from entering the Israeli-controlled zone. Paragraphs 36–37, printed pages 10–11.
The Commission describes an unclear boundary, inadequate warnings and the absence of safe passage. It examined the 29 November 2025 drone killing of two brothers collecting firewood near Bani Suheila. Israel said two suspects crossed the line, approached its forces and posed an immediate threat. The Commission concluded that the boys were collecting wood, were more than three hundred metres from the soldiers and did not pose the claimed immediate danger. It identified the Kfir Brigade as operating in the area. Paragraphs 37–39, printed page 11.
For a child, returning towards a home or finding fuel for the family can become a lethal encounter with a boundary that is difficult to locate. The report treats clear communication, protective procedures and investigation as essential obligations. Its conclusion is that a ceasefire permitting continued lethal fire against children around an ill-defined line fails to provide the protection that the word ceasefire should promise. Paragraph 40, printed page 11. Paragraphs 354–355, printed page 81.
6. Hind Rajab: following a case through the evidence
The report revisits the killing of Hind Rajab and her relatives on 29 January 2024, and the deaths of two Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedics sent to reach them. The family had been trying to evacuate. The rescue mission was coordinated through the relevant channels, but the ambulance was struck. The family and rescuers’ bodies could not be retrieved for twelve days. The Commission brings together the sequence, the attempted rescue and the material recovered afterwards. Paragraphs 49–51, printed page 14.
Investigators assessed the ambulance’s damage and ammunition evidence, recorded gunfire, satellite imagery, official statements and evacuation orders. The report discusses audio-ballistic analysis consistent with a tank-mounted machine gun firing close to the family’s car. Israel’s preliminary account said its troops were not nearby or within firing range and referred the incident for military assessment. The Commission rejected that absence claim after examining the wider record. Paragraphs 51–54, printed pages 14–15.
It concluded that the 401st Brigade, under the 162nd Division, deliberately targeted the family knowing children were present and obstructed rescue by striking the ambulance. At the time of writing, the Commission was unaware of a completed Israeli investigation. The case gives concrete meaning to accountability: establish who was present, test explanations against physical evidence, examine rescue coordination and determine responsibility for the decisions that left a child and those sent to save her without protection. Paragraphs 53–55, printed page 15.
7. What medical evidence showed about direct targeting
The Commission’s deliberate-targeting chapter combines individual reconstructions with accounts from seventeen medical practitioners who worked in Gaza between October 2023 and July 2025. They described a recurring pattern of children with gunshot wounds, including incidents in which adults nearby were unharmed and witnesses reported no crossfire. The Commission examined circumstances such as evacuation, life inside displacement camps, ordinary play and attempts to find food. Paragraph 48, printed page 14. Paragraphs 63–64, printed pages 16–17.
The clinical review has a defined size. The Commission obtained records concerning seventeen children and commissioned independent forensic analysis in fifteen cases; twelve of those reviewed injuries were consistent with a single gunshot. It separately received additional reports concerning 168 children with gunshot wounds. The smaller independently reviewed group and the larger body of reported cases play different evidentiary roles. Medical findings establish injuries and their mechanisms; witness, visual and contextual evidence are also needed to assess targeting. Paragraphs 65–69, printed page 17.
In particular cases, the Commission attributed shots to snipers or armed quadcopters based on medical images, ammunition evidence and witness accounts. It also examined public military descriptions of visibility, precision and human operation. The resulting finding concerns deliberate choices made with the ability to observe children. Its broader conclusion links those incidents to permissive fire practices, dehumanizing statements and failures of accountability, drawing on both its investigations and cited reporting from Israeli soldiers. Paragraphs 59–62, printed page 16. Paragraphs 71–75, printed pages 18–19. Paragraphs 82–86, printed page 20.
8. The West Bank: lethal force during ordinary life
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has its own chapter and evidence. The underlying OCHA update records 213 children killed by Israeli forces and settlers between 7 October 2023 and 20 October 2025, overwhelmingly boys. The Commission discusses intensified military operations, expanded use of airstrikes and a pattern in which boys were treated as presumptive threats. The legal assessment considers the child’s actions, the danger actually present and access to medical assistance. OCHA Humanitarian Situation Update 333; Paragraphs 87–88, printed page 21.
Among the examined cases is a January 2025 drone strike in Tammun that killed two boys and their adult cousin. The report says an Israeli internal inquiry found the assessment that they were planting an explosive device was mistaken and that no explosives were found. Another case involved an unarmed boy in Tulkarem whose shooting was recorded on CCTV. The Commission found that obstruction of his ambulance compounded the harm; he later died. Paragraphs 90–92, printed page 22.
The chapter also examines reported broadening of fire orders and a November 2025 shooting in Al Faraa, testing Israel’s account of threat and first aid against video evidence. Its concern is how expansive suspicion becomes lethal authority, particularly against boys. The report concludes that repeated unnecessary or excessive force, combined with denied care and inadequate investigation, functioned as punitive control and intimidation rather than protection of children’s lives. Paragraphs 93–96, printed pages 22–24.
9. Settler violence and the loss of safe childhood spaces
The settler-violence chapter examines children attacked while playing outside, travelling to school, tending animals or accompanying family members on their land. These are ordinary activities through which a child learns independence and belongs to a community. The Commission describes physical assaults, abductions, threats and killings, alongside fear that outlasts the incident and narrows where children can safely go. Paragraphs 97–102, printed pages 24–25.
In the Beitin case of 13 April 2024, it examined settler violence in the presence of soldiers, including a vehicle burned without intervention and the later killing of a Palestinian teenager by an armed settler. The Commission also documented younger children abducted while playing and subsequently freed by relatives. Its account considers both direct attackers and the role of authorities who supplied support, accompanied settlers or failed to protect the people being attacked. Paragraphs 98–101, printed pages 24–25.
The Commission places these incidents within a coercive process driving Palestinians away from land and communities. Protection therefore requires action before an attack, intervention when violence begins and meaningful investigation afterwards. The report finds that Israel failed those obligations and that military inaction could contribute directly to a child’s death. It connects safety in homes, fields and school routes with the right to remain in one’s community without intimidation. Paragraph 102, printed page 25. Paragraphs 314–319, printed pages 72–74.
10. Arrest, disappearance and the harm that continues after release
The report describes boys singled out in mass arrests, separated from families and treated as adults or suspected fighters despite evidence of their age. It says the number and whereabouts of child detainees from Gaza remained unknown. A separate prison-service snapshot counted 351 Palestinian children in its custody on 31 December 2025, with fifty-one percent in administrative detention without charge. That snapshot excludes children in military detention and interrogation facilities. Paragraphs 103–106, printed page 26.
Children described violence, intimidation, deprivation of food, sleep and healthcare, and loss of contact with parents and lawyers. The Commission also drew on institutional records, including medical documentation, prison information submitted to Israeli courts and an Israeli Public Defender’s report on incarceration conditions. It assessed those conditions as a system of coercion and deprivation with particularly serious effects on developing bodies and minds. Paragraphs 107–113, printed pages 26–28.
The death of a seventeen-year-old in Megiddo Prison illustrates the distinction between medical uncertainty and responsibility. The autopsy did not establish one definitive cause of death; the Commission examined severe malnutrition, illness and inadequate treatment and concluded that mistreatment in custody caused a preventable death. Release also failed to end danger for some children: the report describes children left without medical care or arrangements to reunite them with displaced families. Paragraphs 114–116, printed page 28. Paragraphs 110, 118–121, printed pages 27–29.
11. Sexual violence, humiliation and children’s dignity
The Commission documents sexual and gender-based violence during arrests, evacuation and detention, including forced public nudity, sexualized threats and degrading treatment. It examines the filming and circulation of abuse as part of the harm itself. Such material can continue to humiliate a survivor long after release. Describing the findings requires protecting children’s privacy and dignity, rather than reproducing images or detailed accounts of what was done to them. Paragraphs 122–128, printed pages 29–31.
The evidence includes investigated incidents, direct testimony and corroborating visual material. The report also identifies a limit: new information from an organization alleging additional sexual violence, including rape of boys in detention, could not be independently verified at the time of writing. Its broader finding rests on the cases and evidence it assessed, while that additional information remains separately qualified. Paragraphs 129–135, printed pages 31–32.
The Commission concluded that sexual and gender-based violence was used to punish, intimidate and subordinate Palestinians, including children. It connected that abuse to serious physical and mental harm and, in its Gaza genocide analysis, to destruction of the group’s continuity and future. Children must be able to seek care and justice without public exposure, retaliation or the stigma that often prevents survivors from speaking. Paragraphs 280–282, printed page 65. Paragraph 343, printed page 78.
12. Hospitals: children lost the places that could keep them alive
The healthcare chapter traces attacks, forced evacuation, siege and disrupted treatment at specialized paediatric hospitals. Facilities repeatedly closed, sometimes reopened partially, and struggled to maintain safe services. Children with asthma, epilepsy or other pre-existing conditions were pushed towards hospitals without the necessary medicines, equipment or expertise. A damaged health system harms children who never receive a weapon injury as well as those brought in after an attack. Paragraphs 136–147, printed pages 32–34.
At Al-Nasr, the Commission examined staff testimony, the loss of electricity and the evacuation of staff who could not safely move four infants dependent on life support. It verified video from the neonatal unit and reported those infants found dead afterwards. At Rantisi, Israel alleged a Hamas network; the Commission could not independently verify that allegation and emphasized that protective evacuation measures for children remained necessary. Its account of repeated closures and reopening shows treatment capacity being restored and then damaged again. Paragraphs 137–141, printed pages 32–33.
The chapter also examines a July 2025 strike on people waiting for nutritional supplements at a clinic in Deir al Balah, which the report says killed children among other civilians. Israel said it targeted a Hamas militant and was reviewing the incident. The Commission assessed attacks and interrupted care as part of a wider pattern dismantling essential services. Its legal findings address both attacks on protected facilities and the suffering caused when medical treatment is deliberately denied. Paragraph 146, printed page 34. Paragraphs 290–293, printed pages 67–68.
13. Newborns, pregnancy and the first conditions of survival
For a newborn, an incubator requires a functioning chain of electricity, oxygen, medication, staff and safe access. The Commission describes that chain breaking repeatedly, with sharply reduced neonatal capacity, shared incubators and shortages of essentials. The same restrictions affected pregnant women before delivery: inadequate food, interrupted prenatal care, displacement and trauma increased the dangers surrounding pregnancy and birth. The report treats maternal health and infant survival as inseparable. Paragraphs 148–153, printed pages 34–36.
Gaza’s Health Ministry recorded 17,000 live births in the first half of 2025, compared with 29,000 in the first half of 2022. Those are recorded birth numbers, not a population-adjusted fertility rate. Clinicians and agencies also reported more premature or underweight babies and greater need for specialist care. The Commission describes families struggling to obtain the surgery, nutrition, medicines and equipment that vulnerable newborns needed, alongside deaths from cold in inadequate shelter. Paragraphs 154–162, printed pages 36–38. Paragraphs 163–165, printed page 38.
Its legal analysis connects repeated warnings, foreseeable consequences and the continuation of destructive policies. It finds that deprivation and healthcare destruction knowingly undermined newborn survival and caused severe suffering. This child-focused analysis examines pregnancy and newborn outcomes, harm to foetuses and children’s survival. It is distinct from the earlier Commission finding about measures intended to prevent births within the Palestinian group. Paragraphs 294–299, printed pages 68–70. Paragraph 338 and footnote 447, printed page 77.
14. Schools: refuge, learning and a future interrupted
Schools served two essential roles: education and refuge for families displaced from their homes. The Commission records 459 of Gaza’s 564 school buildings directly hit by 11 October 2025 and reports extensive further damage. These were buildings serving children, teachers and, during displacement, people seeking shelter. Its investigation considers visible UN markings, communicated locations, attacks during shelter use, military occupation of facilities and deliberate demolition of empty buildings. Paragraphs 166–171, printed pages 38–39. Paragraphs 180–187, printed pages 41–43.
By the report’s end period, disruption extended into a third academic year. The loss was not only lessons: reliable routines, contact with teachers, friendships and a place to recognize distress also disappeared. The paper acknowledges temporary learning spaces and distance education, including programmes reaching substantial numbers of children. Those efforts mattered while shortages of safe classrooms, supplies, accessible services and stable living conditions prevented a full return to education. Paragraphs 188–194, printed pages 43–44.
The West Bank and East Jerusalem chapter describes school closures, demolition threats, checkpoints and settler attacks that interrupted access and made journeys frightening. It also records an attack on Al-Kaabneh school in which settlers were reportedly arrested and indicted. The Commission’s legal findings concern attacks, unnecessary destruction and failure to protect educational access. Restoring schooling means rebuilding both facilities and the safety that allows children and staff to reach them. Paragraphs 195–201, printed pages 44–46. Paragraphs 287–289, printed pages 66–67.
15. Family loss, separation and attacks on places of care
The report cites an estimate that 58,554 children lost one or both parents between 7 October 2023 and 7 October 2025. A separate estimate concerns children unaccompanied or separated from caregivers. These categories describe different, sometimes overlapping losses. A child may have a surviving parent yet be separated from that parent; another may depend on relatives, neighbours or an older sibling whose own security has collapsed. Paragraphs 202–205, printed pages 46–47.
The Commission examined the October 2024 strike on Al-Amal, a facility caring for orphans and sheltering displaced people. It inferred deliberate targeting from the attack and damage pattern and found that children were killed. In the case of Mubarrat Al Rehmat, damage came from a strike on a neighbouring building, compounded by electricity cuts, siege and disrupted supplies. Children with disabilities then lost specialized care during a difficult evacuation. Paragraphs 206–210, printed pages 47–48.
The distinction between direct and nearby damage does not erase the shared consequence: a place organized around children’s care could no longer provide it. The legal chapter assesses the attacks, foreseeable suffering and the occupying power’s duty to sustain institutions caring for children. Family tracing, reunification, accessible accommodation and continuing medical and emotional support become central parts of protection, especially when a child has already lost the person who normally secures those things. Paragraphs 284–286, printed pages 65–66. Paragraph 358, printed page 82.
16. Displacement, hunger, water and preventable disease
Repeated displacement brought children into overcrowded shelters with inadequate water, sanitation, privacy and protection from weather. Fetching food or water consumed time and exposed them to danger. Shortages affected hygiene, menstrual care, infant feeding and the ability to treat ordinary illnesses. The report describes these as interacting conditions: hunger weakens the body, unsafe water brings infection, and reduced healthcare makes both harder to survive. Paragraphs 211–221, printed pages 48–51.
The document records famine confirmed in Gaza Governorate in August 2025, alongside projected expansion at that time. It also cites a December 2025 assessment after the October ceasefire in which no area was classified in famine, while severe food insecurity and child malnutrition persisted. Forecasts of future malnutrition are presented as projections, rather than observed totals. This historical improvement makes visible both the effects of improved access and the continuing need for reliable food and care. Paragraphs 224–228, printed pages 52–53.
Disease adds another layer. The paper examines polio, disrupted vaccination, diarrhoeal illness, skin infections, poor healing and dental problems in children living without adequate nutrition, hygiene or treatment. It also records vaccination efforts. Its legal assessment is that starvation as a method of warfare, obstructed medical evacuation and deliberately imposed destructive conditions violated obligations towards children. Recovery requires sustained access to food, clean water, shelter, preventive care and treatment together. Paragraph 222, printed page 51. Paragraphs 229–237, printed pages 53–55. Paragraphs 300–304, printed pages 70–71.
17. Mental harm: living without a dependable place of safety
The mental-health chapter follows bereavement, injury, repeated displacement, hunger and the loss of ordinary routines. The Commission describes nightmares, withdrawal, difficulty communicating, anxiety, disrupted concentration and fear of another attack. Children also faced grief without stable support: a parent could be dead, missing, injured or struggling with their own trauma. Some children assumed adult responsibilities, finding necessities or caring for younger siblings while still needing care themselves. Paragraphs 238–246, printed pages 55–57.
The damage was compounded by the closure of Gaza’s specialist mental-health facilities and difficulties delivering consistent support. Humanitarian psychosocial work and community efforts continued, but they operated amid the same insecurity affecting every other service. The report discusses continuing traumatic stress: distress unfolds while danger is still present, so recovery cannot depend only on helping a child process an event safely in the past. Paragraphs 247–248, printed page 57.
In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, raids, detention, checkpoints, settler violence and unsafe school routes produced another pattern of chronic fear. Families restricted children’s movements and play, while insecurity narrowed their sense of possibility. The Commission connects that accumulated harm to children’s development and identity. Care must preserve their agency and opportunities for recovery, with secure relationships, accessible treatment, education and places where they can play without anticipating violence. Paragraphs 249–254, printed pages 57–59. Paragraph 365, printed page 83.
18. Why toys, bedrooms and schoolbooks belong in this report
The Commission documented at least thirty-five instances of Israeli soldiers filming themselves mocking, damaging or exploiting symbols of childhood. The material included children’s toys, clothes, school supplies and possessions inside homes and public spaces. These items often carry little market value but enormous personal meaning. They hold routines, achievements, comfort and memories, particularly when a child’s home or family life has already been shattered. Paragraphs 255–261, printed pages 59–60.
The paper interprets the repeated acts and their public circulation as degradation of Palestinians and their children, enabled by inadequate accountability. It also records a February 2024 instruction from Israel’s chief of staff telling soldiers not to take others’ belongings. The Commission found no evidence that the instruction changed the pattern it examined and was unaware of investigations into these incidents. Its concern extends from the filmed conduct to the military culture in which it continued. Paragraphs 262–263, printed page 60.
The legal analysis connects children’s belongings and spaces with rights to development, an adequate standard of living, rest, play, recovery and social reintegration. Destruction of these things is considered alongside the wider pattern of deprivation and humiliation. A serious account of childhood therefore includes what allows a child to feel at home, remain connected to others and imagine a life beyond immediate survival. Paragraphs 305–307, printed page 71. Paragraph 366, printed page 83.
19. The legal findings: three child-focused genocide act categories
The report’s summary distinguishes geography and offence. It finds continued genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Its crimes-against-humanity analysis builds on earlier findings of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population. It identifies killing, extermination, torture, persecution and enforced disappearance in the evidence it examined, with particular attention to how children were selected and harmed. Paragraphs 329–337, printed pages 76–77.
For genocide, the Commission connects its earlier September 2025 finding of four underlying categories to this paper’s focus on three: killing members of the protected group, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction. The earlier birth-prevention finding is expressly distinguished in a footnote. Here, children’s survival, injuries, mental harm and deprivation are analysed as attacks on the continuity of the Palestinian group in Gaza. Paragraph 338 and footnote 447, printed page 77. Paragraphs 339–344, printed pages 78–79.
The additional requirement is specific intent to destroy the protected group, in whole or in part, as such. The Commission infers that intent from the total pattern, direct targeting in investigated cases, attacks on essential services, persistence despite warnings and foreseeable consequences that had already materialized. It concludes that targeting children and the conditions needed for them to live was part of destroying the group’s future, and reiterates its genocide finding. Paragraphs 345–351, printed pages 79–80.
20. From documented incidents to units and command responsibility
Accountability requires identifying actors and decisions, rather than leaving the findings at the level of an anonymous battlefield. In paragraph 356, the Commission names eleven entries concerning divisions, brigades or units that it concludes may be responsible for particular killings or injuries. That is a basis for further investigation of actions and command relationships, with the underlying case evidence preserved and tested. Paragraph 356, printed pages 81–82.
Examples include the Kfir Brigade in connection with the November 2025 firewood incident; the 401st Brigade under the 162nd Division in the Hind Rajab case; and the Multi-Dimensional Unit, also known as Unit 888 or Refaim, in connection with shootings attributed to armed quadcopters. The list also covers West Bank incidents. The Commission links each entry to the corresponding investigation rather than offering a list of people convicted of a crime. Paragraph 356(a), (c), (e) and full list, printed pages 81–82.
Its recommendations extend to individual perpetrators and political or military command responsibility. Further proceedings need to determine who gave orders, who acted, what information they had and what was done to prevent or punish violations. This focus keeps responsibility attached to evidence and particular conduct. It also protects the principle running through the site’s mission: accountability for power without assigning collective guilt to a people or religion. Section IX(A)(d) and (p), printed pages 84–85.
21. Israel’s public response to the draft
In a response publicly posted on 21 June, Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected deliberate child targeting and disputed the Commission’s impartiality, source verification and expertise. It argued that the draft insufficiently examined Israeli child victims, Hamas’s military use of civilian facilities and aid diversion. It cited assistance with field hospitals, medical supplies and vaccinations, and offered specific contrary accounts, including a West Bank operation in which a two-year-old girl was killed. Israel said it received the draft on 1 June, was given ten days to respond and maintained a policy of not engaging with the Commission. Read the official eighteen-page response, particularly pages 10–18.
The final report explains its own methodology and acknowledges both earlier investigations of crimes against Israeli children and unfinished work on the use of children by parties. Those points are relevant to the dispute over scope and evidence. The competing accounts should be examined at the level of the case record: medical and visual material, operational claims, witness testimony, protective measures and the reasoning supporting each conclusion. Paragraphs 4–11, printed pages 3–4.
22. What Israel is called on to change
The recommendations begin with stopping the conduct: halt military operations in Gaza, including near the yellow line; observe necessity, distinction and precautions; withdraw forces to the 1967 boundary; and comply with the ICJ’s 2024 provisional measures and occupation advisory opinion. The Commission also calls for implementation of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s recommendations and accountability for crimes affecting children. Section IX(A)(a–d), printed page 84.
For children in custody, it calls for an end to arbitrary and administrative detention, torture and incommunicado detention; last-resort, shortest-possible detention with humane treatment; specialized civilian juvenile courts; accurate information for families; and return of deceased children’s bodies. For injured and displaced children, it calls for safe evacuation with family and a guaranteed return, reconstruction of care and education facilities, and unrestricted humanitarian assistance. Section IX(A)(e–k), printed page 84.
The practical work also includes protecting children from settler violence, dismantling outposts, establishing child-protection cooperation with Palestinian authorities and incorporating legal duties towards children into military and prison training. The Commission asks Israel to develop a UN-coordinated action plan to end grave violations and cooperate with international accountability mechanisms. These recommendations connect prevention, treatment, family unity and justice as continuing duties. Section IX(A)(l–p), printed page 85.
23. What other states, the United Nations and the ICC are asked to do
For member states and ceasefire negotiators, the Commission calls for all reasonably available measures to prevent atrocity crimes, implementation of ICC warrants, investigations under domestic or universal jurisdiction, and targeted sanctions. It recommends stopping arms, equipment and jet-fuel transfers where there is reason to suspect their use in operations involving relevant international crimes. It also calls for unhindered assistance tailored to children and political processes that listen to Palestinians, including children themselves. Section IX(B), printed pages 85–86.
For the Security Council, it recommends prohibiting two-way military-related trade, sanctions and a dedicated debate on children and compliance with ICJ provisional measures. For the General Assembly, it recommends a resolution seeking military-trade restrictions and sanctions, together with a review of implementation of the July 2024 occupation advisory opinion. These are proposals for action by those institutions, whose adoption would require their own decisions. Sections IX(C–D), printed page 86.
For the Secretary-General, it seeks expanded monitoring and listings concerning abduction, settler violence, sexual violence and denial of humanitarian assistance, alongside dedicated reporting and a child-protection action plan. For the ICC Prosecutor, it requests particular attention to crimes against and affecting children and examination of officials and others most responsible. The report therefore asks six distinct audiences to act: Israel, other states, the Security Council, General Assembly, Secretary-General and ICC Prosecutor. Sections IX(E–F), printed pages 86–87.
24. What justice must make possible for a child
In an anonymous account, an injured boy remembered his mother urging him to be a good person and help others, giving a doctor or engineer as examples. After her death, he still wanted to contribute to society. The report preserves a child’s aspiration alongside the harm he endured. Anonymous testimony introducing section VI, printed page 59.
The chronology at the end of the report places attacks, restrictions, displacement, ceasefire periods and renewed harm on a shared timeline. Its larger account is cumulative: injury becomes harder to survive when hospitals close; loss of parents becomes harder to bear when schools and community care disappear; hunger deepens illness; repeated displacement frustrates every effort to rebuild. The conclusion is about the destruction of a future through connected actions and conditions. Annex chronology, printed pages 88–94. Paragraphs 351–353, printed page 80.
A response worthy of children must reverse those connections. It must provide safety, family reunification, food, clean water, accessible healthcare, rehabilitation, education and opportunities to play and recover. It must preserve evidence and investigate responsibility while allowing children privacy and a voice in decisions affecting them. Their lives are larger than the harm described here. Protection means restoring the conditions in which their choices and futures can belong to them. Paragraphs 13–21, printed pages 5–7. Section IX, printed pages 84–87.
Read the record: the complete June 2026 report and its UN document page. Continue with our full review of the September 2025 genocide analysis and our earlier focused report on child detention and abuse findings. For peaceful ways to help, visit Take Action.