Israel's targeting of Gaza's children proves genocidal intent, UN inquiry finds

Lead

A United Nations-mandated inquiry has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, concluding that the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children was an intentional component of its military campaign. The report, released this week by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, said Israeli forces had killed children directly through attacks and indirectly by destroying schools and hospitals, starving the population, and collapsing essential services. Israel's government has dismissed the findings as "defamatory" and "deeply flawed."

Coverage Comparison

ABC Australia and RFI English reported the commission's findings, each highlighting the central claim that children were deliberately targeted. ABC Australia focused its reporting on the accusation that Israeli forces had conducted direct attacks on children, including shooting at their vital organs with drones and sniper fire, and quoted the commission's assertion that "much of the harm suffered by Palestinian children was not incidental but intended to destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group." RFI English emphasised the report's overall conclusion of genocide and added statistical details, including that more than 20,000 children were killed between 7 October, 2023 and 7 October, 2025, and that over 40,000 were wounded and over 58,500 lost at least one parent or became orphans.

Key Claims

• ABC Australia and RFI English both reported that the UN commission accused Israel of committing genocide and war crimes against children, as well as crimes against humanity including age-based persecution.

• The commission found that deliberately targeting children supported the conclusion there was an intent to destroy Palestinians as a group, RFI and ABC both reported. RFI quoted the commission as saying that children's suffering "destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group."

• RFI English reported that the document documented violations perpetrated between 7 October, 2023 and 31 March, 2026, and said more than 20,000 children were killed, over 40,000 wounded, and more than 58,500 lost at least one parent or became orphans.

• ABC Australia reported that the commission said Israeli forces repeatedly bombed populated neighbourhoods, schools and refugee camps and destroyed the systems children need to survive, including 97 percent of schools destroyed and 95 percent of universities damaged.

• The commission also said Israeli forces deliberately deployed precision weaponry, including quadcopter drones and sniper rifles, “to inflict maximum damage”, a claim carried by ABC Australia.

• The investigation found that around 30 and a half per cent of and a third of the Palestinians killed in Gaza from October 2023 to October 2025 were children—a higher proportion than in previous conflicts, according to ABC Australia.

Perspectives

The United Nations-mandated inquiry, the Israel government, and UNICEF's chief advocacy officer are together presented in the latest reporting.

The UN inquiry argues that deliberate, systematic targeting of children is evidence of genocidal intent. The commission holds Israel responsible for what it describes as a campaign that "irreparably destroyed the sanctity of childhood, including family ties, identity, innocence, safety and future."

The Israeli government has rejected the commission's conclusions, admonishing the report as "deeply flawed" and full of "errors and distortions" designed around a political narrative, according to ABC. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted Israel had not violated the law and pushed back that the inquiry ignored Israeli victims of the October 7 attacks.

UNICEF's advocacy and international programmes chief, Baptiste Chapuis, was cited by the commission's report in presenting the output: "Fear and violence have become so regular, so everyday and so constant that the trauma we see is no longer just an episode in their lives, it is intrinsically linked to their daily reality and to the very fabric of their childhood."