UN Says Palestinian Children Were Deliberately Targeted for Their Age in Crime Against Humanity Finding

A UN inquiry has accused Israeli forces of committing a crime against humanity by deliberately persecuting Palestinian children because of their age in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, finding that the harm inflicted on them 'is not incidental or collateral' but part of a pattern of intentional violence.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry has extended to the occupied West Bank a finding it first made about Gaza in June. It documented the killing of a seven‑month‑old baby shot in the head in Hebron and a 14‑year‑old boy shot in the chest near Jenin.

Israel did not respond to the commission's requests for information.

A Pattern of Intentional Violence

In a report dated 14 October 2026, the commission concluded that Israeli forces committed age-based persecution of Palestinian children in both the West Bank and Gaza, according to the advance unedited version published by the UN.

It found that Israeli government and security forces 'deliberately carried out acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on Palestinian children'. The harm, the commission said, 'is not incidental or collateral' but part of a pattern of intentional violence.

In relation to Gaza only, the commission also said the killing and harming of children were among the elements establishing specific intent to commit genocide. The findings are the conclusions of a UN inquiry, not a court judgment.

Human Rights Watch highlighted the finding in an analysis published on 29 October by Zama Neff, executive director of its children's rights division. The group said children in the West Bank were targeted on the basis of nationality, race, ethnicity and age, in attacks causing serious bodily and mental harm.

The Children Behind the Numbers

The report puts the overall death toll in the occupied Palestinian territory since 7 October 2023 at more than 75,000, including at least 21,500 children, as of 30 September 2026.

In the West Bank, Israeli forces killed 1,080 Palestinians, including 237 boys and seven girls, and injured 10,940. In Gaza, since the ceasefire of 10 October 2025, 1,431 people have been killed, including at least 300 children.

The report also charts how the violence in the West Bank has changed. Air strikes killed six Palestinians there between 2008 and 6 October 2023, but 254 between 7 October 2023 and 30 September 2026, according to TRT World's summary of the findings. As of August, 34,176 people remained displaced.

The cases the commission examined in detail are stark. On 5 June 2026 in Hebron, a soldier fired into a car after the father had stopped and raised his hands, the report says. A seven-month-old baby was shot in the head, and no medical aid was given.

The Israeli army said the car was accelerating towards soldiers. The commission disputed that account, finding the soldier had a clear view of the occupants from about 10 metres and that they posed no imminent threat, TRT World reported.

On 15 March 2026 in Tammun, forces shot a family of six, killing the parents and their two youngest sons. The two older boys were injured and assaulted. On 8 September 2025, near the entrance to the Jenin refugee camp, a 14-year-old boy was shot in the chest and killed.

In Gaza, 46 of the 104 people reported killed in strikes on 28 and 29 October 2025 were children, the commission said. An attack on a car on 17 October 2025 killed 11 people, including five boys and two girls. The commission's satellite analysis showed the car was outside the so-called Yellow Line, contrary to the Israeli military's account.

Accountability Gaps and Unanswered Cases

The commission said it was not aware of any effective Israeli investigation, disciplinary step or judicial measure in any of the cases it examined. None of the families had received a remedy, even in four cases where Israeli authorities acknowledged mistakes.

That absence of accountability, it concluded, has 'entrenched a discriminatory system'.

The commission sent two requests for information to the Israeli government and two to the Palestinian Authority. Israel did not respond, while the Palestinian Authority did, according to the report. Israel has long declined to cooperate with the commission.

The report also examined the Palestinian Authority. In a December 2024 incident, it found that Palestinian security forces used excessive and unlawful force, and that the harm caused to a 15-year-old breached the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It also noted that the Authority accepted responsibility for the death of a boy run over by a security vehicle in October 2023.

Age as a Ground for Persecution

Human Rights Watch argues that age can already qualify as a ground for persecution under existing international law, even though it is not expressly listed in the current draft definition. It pointed to the International Criminal Court's confirmation of 39 charges against the Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony, including persecution on grounds of age. The charges were confirmed in his absence, and Kony has not been convicted.

The group wants countries drafting a new treaty on crimes against humanity to list age explicitly. Sixteen countries have proposed adding it to the working draft's definition of persecution, and HRW is urging more to back the change before formal negotiations begin in 2028.

Nasir Qadri, an international law scholar at Koç University, told TRT World that the barrier to justice lies elsewhere. 'The main obstacle is not jurisdiction, but enforcement,' he said.

Among its recommendations, the commission called on Israel to end impunity through independent investigations and prosecutions and to dismantle practices that expose children to repeated harm.