UN Special Report on Palestine
Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel
“The essence of childhood has been destroyed”: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023
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You can find the following Quotes within the report:
The commission’s chair, Srinivasan Muralidhar, says:
“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces. 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.”
Summary
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 Commission examines the use of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, against Palestinian children, particularly during mass arrests and in detention. It analyses pattern of Israel’s targeting of critical infrastructure essential to children, such as healthcare facilities and its short- to long-term consequences, as well as the impact of reproductive violence on newborns, resulting in poor neonatal health and birthing outcomes; attacks on orphanages and schools, impacting the loss of care for orphans and unaccompanied children, and inducing academic harm and learning disruptions for children, respectively.
The Commission examines the impact of the conditions of life imposed by Israel in Gaza resulting in preventable mortality of children, exacerbating morbidity, and serious mental trauma from the relentless and widespread attacks by Israel over two years – collectively revealing severe, multi-layered harm to Palestinian children’s survival, health, and development. Further, the Commission examines how Israeli soldiers mock and weaponize symbols of childhood in Gaza, raising ethical, disciplinary and legal questions about the conduct of the Israeli security forces during the ground invasion of Gaza.
Lastly, the Commission provides recommendations to diverse stakeholders for the cessation of attacks, reparations, accountability and international enforcement of sanctions – aimed at advancing child-responsive justice.
There are many other quotes spread throughout the document.
IV. Physical harm against Palestinian children by Israel
Hanoch Milwidsky, Member of the Knesset (Likud) on 21 February 2024
“You will die, your children will die, your grandchildren will die – there won’t be a Palestinian state, there won’t be.”
Continued killing and maiming of children since the October 2025 ceasefire agreement
A doctor told the Commission:
“It is difficult for Palestinians to know where the yellow line is, as it is just some random yellow blocks placed at random distance and there is nothing clearly marking it (e.g. fences), so it is impossible for people, particularly children, to know or locate the line. This yellow line also keeps moving and it is not an internationally recognized line; it’s an arbitrary line by Israeli security forces.”
Impact of explosive weapons: serious injuries and life-long disabilities of children
Uncle of a three-year-old orphaned boy who was severely injured in three different attacks:
“Without any warning, around four or five explosions hit the front of the school. I ran outside to find my three-year-old nephew whose parents were killed in a previous airstrike, covered in blood with his legs cut off, signalling with both his hands for me to pick him up and save him.”
Section B. Deliberate targeting of children by the Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip
A doctor who visited Gaza on medical mission:
“Based on the clustering of injuries and the targeted body parts, I assess that the Israeli soldiers have been deliberately shooting teenage boys in a game of target practice – a different body part being targeted on different days… There is a very clear pattern that suggest this is a deliberate aiming of different body parts [of children].”
Section C. Killing and maiming of children by the Israeli security forces in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem
Israeli Knesset member Yitzhak Kroizer (from Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party) during Knesset session on 25 March 2026:
“We back our soldiers at any cost, regardless of the outcome…In Jenin, there are no innocent children. Those who were born in 2006 during the expulsion [disengagement] of Gush Katif are the Nakba of 2026 on 7 October [attack]…I have no, even for a little, any sense of compassion for my enemies.”
Section D. Killing and other forms of violence against children by Israeli settlers and other Israeli civilians
A female child survivor abducted and ill-treated by armed Israeli settlers:
“I tried to scream to alarm others, but I could not because the settlers had covered my mouth who forcibly and violently dragged me while cursing in Hebrew.”
Section E. Mistreatment of children during arrest and in detention
An Israeli soldier said to a blindfolded and handcuffed 15-year-old boy in an Israeli truck while transferring him to Israeli prison:
“You are going to Israel; you are going to hell.”
Mistreatment of Palestinian child detainees and prisoners in military detention and IPS facilities
A 15-year-old boy arrested by Israeli security forces during a mass arrest from Gaza in December 2023:
“After showing my ID and confirming my age, I told the Israeli soldier that I want to go and sit with women and children, but the Israeli soldier said to me, ‘No, you belong to armed groups, and you will pay a price.’ I was being intentionally targeted because they [Israeli security forces] took me, interrogated me, found no connection with armed groups and released me.”
Death of a 17-year-old Palestinian boy in Israel’s Megiddo Prison
Witness, referring to the condition of a boy who died in an IPS prison:
“He had severe weight loss which did not just happen overnight for which he saw prison physicians at least a few times during his detention, so the Israeli prison authorities knew that he was losing weight and yet kept him in detention in poor conditions.”
Section F. Sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinian children
A Palestinian detainee recounted how boys and men were stripped to their underwear in Gaza and taken to military bases in Israel:
“The convoy was led by an Israeli military jeep, followed by three trucks carrying stripped Gazan boys and men, followed by another military jeep with Israeli soldiers who took photos and videos and fired shots into the air near the trucks every five minutes.”
Section G. Attacks on healthcare and its impact on children and newborns
A doctor who visited Gaza on medical mission:
“I met a young boy with extensive injury to his lower extremities. He was being taken care by a few teenaged boys. When I asked the boy where his parents were, he replied in the north [Gaza], but the older boys were signalling from behind not to ask him about his parents. Later the older boys told me that his entire family was killed during evacuation, and they did not have the heart to tell him about his family. So now, the boy is being cared for by random people he met at the hospital.”
Impact of attacks on healthcare facilities for newborn care
Moshe Feiglin, a far-right politician and former Likud member of the Israeli Knesset, in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14 on 20 May 2025
“Every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy. The enemy is not Hamas, and it is not Hamas’ military wing, like our chief military prosecutor tells us, that we are not allowed to harm a Hamas member unless they are part of the military wing. Every child in Gaza is the enemy… We need to conquer Gaza and colonize it and not leave a single Gazan child there. There is no other victory.”
Impact of reproductive violence on birth outcomes
An emergency room and paediatric nurse:
“There is a direct targeting by Israel to affect the long-term health outcomes of babies. There is no reason why we cannot bring medications into Gaza to help pregnant women and babies, so it makes no sense except to think that this particular group is being targeted due to which there is a higher mortality rate among newborns.”
Impact of hypothermia for newborn survival
A paediatric doctor:
“In my career – and I’m 72 years now – I have not seen this level of neonatal suffering caused intentionally by Israel. This kind of extreme situation has never been seen before in Gaza. This is not a normal situation for neonates to die from cold.” -.
Section H. Attacks on and military occupation of educational facilities and its impact on children Gaza Strip
An Israeli soldier, in a video entitled “It’s always fun to blow up schools”, right before blowing up a school [as seen in the video posted by him]:
“In my childhood, I’ve always dreamed of blowing up my school. Today I’m blowing up a school. Wow!”
Controlled demolition of education facilities
An Israeli officer posted on 19 December 2023:
“The destruction of the enemy also means the complete obliteration of their symbols of power and national sites. And indeed, maybe for the first time, we are hearing that the IDF is destroying targets that are not just military objectives. The destruction of the Supreme Court in Gaza (in the picture: before, during, and after), the destruction of the Islamic University.”
Impact of attacks and closure of schools on academic development and learning in Gaza
A teacher told the Commission:
“When children lose their chance to access education, they lose their future.”.
Section I. Attacks and damage to facilities caring for children (orphanages) in Gaza and their impact
A paediatrician and neonatologist:
“In case of babies of dead parents, with the help of ethical committee, they [hospital] searched for other family members or even neighbours to look after them because there was no place in the hospital and orphanages were full, with reduced capacity. So, these babies have no identity.”
Section J. Impact of displacement and siege on children’s conditions of life in Gaza
A 13.5-year-old boy who was severely injured in an airstrike on his home in December 2023:
“At one point, we had to eat cat food and grind donkey food to make bread. It tasted disgusting but we had to eat to survive, to stay alive.” -
Preventable child mortality and morbidity
Israeli soldier posted on 18 March 2024:
“The starvation campaign? It’s a disgrace and shame, our fault that they are hungry; they deserve to die! All of Gaza should be burned with its ‘innocent’ inhabitants, from the greatest to the smallest, who are children of Satan!” -.
Dermatological and dental conditions of children
A doctor who visited Gaza on multiple medical missions:
“I was not able to finish any operation because, every time child patients were taken back to the operating room, their injuries would be covered in maggots and sepsis under the dressings – these child patients had no immune system due to malnutrition. Children just did not recover.”
V. Mental harm against Palestinian children by Israel
A doctor who visited Gaza on medical mission:
“Children brought into the emergency department were seeing around them the chaos of mass casualty, with people screaming, limbs blown off, blood... these children were sitting in a corner, staring blankly, not talking and observing all that, without any adults helping them to process or offer any sense of security. Mental health of children has been completely jeopardized.”
Section A. Children’s mental health and conditions in Gaza
Section B. Children’s mental health and conditions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem
A boy who witnessed the killing of his grandmother in East Jerusalem:
“I actually cry. I miss her and her seat/chair will remain empty when the family gathers at the Ramadan table. At school, I think about her and the blood on head and the floor and parts of her brain on the floor. At night, before I go to sleep, I always cry that I won’t see her again. My siblings’ psyche is not good either – now they have become intolerant of anything. They explode or scream very fast and have stopped tolerating anything.”
VI. Dehumanization of Palestinian childhood
A 13.5-year-old boy who was severely injured in the same airstrike on his house that killed his mother and two sisters in December 2023:
“Before my mother was killed [in an airstrike in which my two sisters were also killed], she told me, ‘I need you to be a good person in the society like doctor or engineer and do good for others.’ Despite everything that happened to my family, I will do anything that is good for the society.”
Section B. Children’s mental health and conditions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem
A boy who witnessed the killing of his grandmother in East Jerusalem:
“I actually cry. I miss her and her seat/chair will remain empty when the family gathers at the Ramadan table. At school, I think about her and the blood on head and the floor and parts of her brain on the floor. At night, before I go to sleep, I always cry that I won’t see her again. My siblings’ psyche is not good either – now they have become intolerant of anything. They explode or scream very fast and have stopped tolerating anything.”
VI. Dehumanization of Palestinian childhood
A 13.5-year-old boy who was severely injured in the same airstrike on his house that killed his mother and two sisters in December 2023:
“Before my mother was killed [in an airstrike in which my two sisters were also killed], she told me, ‘I need you to be a good person in the society like doctor or engineer and do good for others.’ Despite everything that happened to my family, I will do anything that is good for the society.”