Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children, ‌resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the ​occupied West Bank, an independent U.N. inquiry said on Tuesday (June 23, 2026).

The report by the U.N. Independent ⁠International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examined violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Also read | Bullets, bombs, starvation are killing Gaza’s children 

Around 30% of those killed in the Gaza war were children, the report ‌found.

A previous report by the commission in September found that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu incited these acts — accusations that Israel called scandalous.

Israel’s ‌mission in Geneva said Israel rejected what it called the Commission’s “second defamatory advocacy report”.

“Israel dismisses this libelous ‌sham,” ⁠it said in a statement, adding that “every child deserves protection” and asserting that the report ignored “the brutal ⁠tactics of Hamas”.

The U.N. commission said that Palestinian children were deliberately targeted and killed during the war, including after a ceasefire came into effect in October 2025. It said this was a key element establishing genocidal intent by Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian ​group, in whole or in part, in Gaza.

“The evidence ‌shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, the commission’s chair, in a statement accompanying the report.

Child deaths

The report found that the proportion of children killed was higher than in previous conflicts. Between October 7, 2023 and October 7, 2025, at least 20,179 children were killed, ‌around 30% of the overall death toll.

By comparison, in hostilities in Gaza in 2008–2009 and 2014, children ​made up approximately 24% of conflict-related fatalities, the report said.

Israeli forces continued to use high-payload munitions and weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated residential areas despite mounting child casualties, the commission ⁠said.

“This indicates that such attacks, which killed children in such high numbers, were intentional,” it said. It said it believed children were targeted collectively because the Israeli security forces considered the civilian population as a whole to be associated with Hamas ‌and other armed groups.

A rebuttal shared by Israel’s mission in Geneva said Israel “consistently strives to minimize harm to children even in situations of conflict” and that Israel rejected the suggestion it deliberately targets children “in the strongest terms”.

Mr. Muralidhar said that by targeting children, Israel was undermining the capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.

Conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza, including widespread attacks, repeated displacement and starvation caused by the blockade of aid, food and medicine, severely harmed children’s health and development, resulting in preventable deaths and trauma, the report said.

The inquiry also found that ‌attacks on healthcare and reproductive facilities impacted the survival of newborns and reported increases in miscarriages, and that nearly all children in Gaza were ​reported to require psychological support.

Israel’s rebuttal said the report failed to mention Israel’s role in facilitating vaccinations and the entry of medical staff, and the establishment of field hospitals. It accused Hamas ⁠of systematically diverting humanitarian aid and fuel for hospitals. Hamas has rejected such accusations.

West Bank

In the West Bank, including East ⁠Jerusalem, the Commission found a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children and documented evidence of torture, including sexual and gender-based violence, during mass arrests and detention.

It said Palestinian children, particularly boys, were subjected ‌to systematic mistreatment in detention, including forced stripping, beatings and food deprivation.

The commission concluded that the treatment constituted the crimes against humanity of torture and other inhumane acts causing great suffering or serious injury.

Israel’s rebuttal said ​the report’s findings on the West Bank omitted context on the “constant terrorist threat” that it said Israeli security forces were responding to.

Published – June 24, 2026 05:21 am IST

Palestinians walk past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the war, at the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen after the global hunger monitor, in Gaza City, August 28, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinians stand in a heavily damaged building surrounded by rubble, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, on November 2, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

An Israeli tank manoeuvres in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, September 28, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel launched strikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday (September 1, 2025), killing at least 31 people as it presses ahead with a major offensive in the territory’s largest city, according to health officials. Leading genocide scholars, meanwhile, joined other rights groups in accusing Israel of genocide, allegations it vehemently rejects.

Airstrikes and artillery shelling have echoed through Gaza City since Israel declared it a combat zone last week. On the city’s outskirts and in the Jabaliya refugee camp, residents have observed explosive-laden robots demolishing buildings.

“Another merciless night in Gaza City,” said Saeed Abu Elaish, a Jabaliya-born medic sheltering in the northwestern side of the city.

Hospitals in Gaza said at least 31 people were killed by Israeli fire on Monday, more than half of them women and children. At least 13 people were killed in Gaza City, where Israel has carried out several previous large-scale raids since Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel to ignite the war on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militant group — now largely reduced to a guerrilla organization — operates in densely-populated areas.

Gaza City residents, many displaced by war multiple times, now face the twin threats of combat and hunger. The world’s leading authority on food crises said last month that it was in the throes of famine — a crisis driven by ongoing fighting and Israel’s blockade, magnified by repeated mass displacement and the collapse of food production.

A total of 63,557 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says another 160,660 people have been wounded. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals. U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties. Israel disputes them, but hasn’t provided its own toll.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and took 251 people hostage. Forty-eight hostages are still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide said Monday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel, which was established in the wake of the Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews and others were killed, vehemently rejects the allegation. It says it takes every measure to avoid harming civilians and is fighting a war of self-defense after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which Israel says was itself a genocidal act.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars — which has around 500 members worldwide, including a number of Holocaust experts — joined other major human rights organizations, including two Israeli groups, in applying the term to Israel’s wartime conduct.

“Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide,” as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes, according to the group’s resolution, which was supported by 86% of those who voted. The organization didn’t release the specifics of the voting.

“People who are experts in the study of genocide can see this situation for what it is,” Melanie O’Brien, the organization’s president and a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, told The Associated Press.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry called it “an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard.” It said the determination was “entirely based on Hamas’ campaign of lies.”

Thousands of Israelis gathered for the funeral of Idan Shtivi, one of two hostages whose remains were recovered in a military operation last week. A private funeral was held for Ilan Weiss, the other captive.

Some mourners expressed anger at the government for not reaching a deal with Hamas to end the fighting and return the remaining captives.

“It is very, very infuriating that no one, no one from this government stands up and says enough,” said Ami Dagan, a mourner from Rishon Letzion.

“It’s a horror, it’s profound sadness and grief beyond words to describe the anger, the insult to the hostages, the insult to the fallen, the insult to the soldiers sent once again to Gaza,” said Ruti Taro, another mourner. “No one knows why, except for the power-hungry ruler.”

Many Israelis accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political purposes, and mass protests calling for a ceasefire and hostage release have swelled in recent weeks.

An activist flotilla headed to Gaza that had departed Barcelona was forced back to port after a storm hit parts of Spain overnight.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, consisting of around 20 boats with participants from 44 countries, chose to return and delay its departure to “prioritize safety,” a statement said Monday. The expedition includes the prominent climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, who took part in a previous flotilla that was intercepted in July.

Organizers said that with winds exceeding 56 kph (35 mph), some of the smaller boats taking part in the mission would have been at risk.

The flotilla is the largest attempt yet to symbolically break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. All previous ones have been intercepted at sea by Israeli forces. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms and that there are multiple other channels for sending aid to Gaza.

Israel has taken steps to further restrict the delivery of food to northern Gaza as it presses ahead with its latest offensive in Gaza City.

Published – September 01, 2025 10:24 pm IST

A satellite image shows a closer view of aid trucks waiting at the Rafah-Egypt border, January 20, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Gaza has received a major influx of aid and goods, with 915 trucks crossing into the territory on the second day of the ceasefire, the United Nations said.

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said colleagues in Gaza informed the UN that 915 trucks — significantly higher than the 600 trucks called for in the ceasefire — entered Gaza on Monday, based on information from Israeli authorities and the guarantors of the ceasefire agreement.

Editorial | ​Pyrrhic peace: On the Hamas-Israel ceasefire 

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said Sunday the needs in Gaza are staggering and his office said Monday that aid workers are ramping up the delivery of food, clean water, shelter materials and other essential supplies.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the more than two million people in Gaza, about half of them children, depend on this aid, Haq said.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has a 60-day plan to increase beds and deploy overseas health workers to Gaza hospitals, but some 30,000 Palestinians have life-changing injuries and need specialised care, Haq said.

If the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal goes according to the current draft, then fighting will stop in Gaza for 42 days, and dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be freed. In this first phase Israeli troops will pull back to the edges of Gaza, and many Palestinians will be able to return to what remains of their homes as stepped-up aid flows in.

The question is if the ceasefire will survive beyond that first phase.

That will depend on even more negotiations meant to begin within weeks. In those talks, Israel, Hamas, and the U.S, Egyptian and Qatari mediators will have to tackle the tough issue of how Gaza will be governed, with Israel demanding the elimination of Hamas.

Also read | A three-tier war in West Asia with no endgame 

Without a deal within those 42 days to begin the second phase, Israel could resume its campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas – even as dozens of hostages remain in the militants’ hands.

Hamas has agreed to a draft of the ceasefire deal, two officials confirmed, but Israeli officials say details are still being worked out, meaning some terms could change, or the whole deal could even fall through. Here is a look at the plan and potential pitfalls in the draft seen by the Associated Press.

During the first phase, Hamas is to release 33 hostages in exchange for the freeing of hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. By the end of the phase, all living women, children and older people held by the militants should be freed.

Some 100 hostages remain captive inside Gaza, a mix of civilians and soldiers, and the military believes at least a third them are dead.

On the first official day of the ceasefire, Hamas is to free three hostages, then another four on the seventh day. After that, it will make weekly releases.

Which hostages and how many Palestinians will be released is complicated. The 33 will include women, children and those over 50 — almost all civilians, but the deal also commits Hamas to free all living female soldiers. Hamas will release living hostages first, but if the living don’t complete the 33 number, bodies will be handed over. Not all hostages are held by Hamas, so getting other militant groups to hand them over could be an issue.

In exchange, Israel will free 30 Palestinian women, children or elderly for each living civilian hostage freed. For each female soldier freed, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 serving life sentences. In exchange for bodies handed over by Hamas, Israel will free all women and children it has detained from Gaza since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

Dozens of men, including soldiers, will remain captive in Gaza, pending the second phase.

During the proposed deal’s first phase, Israeli troops are to pull back into a buffer zone about a kilometer (0.6 miles) wide inside Gaza along its borders with Israel.

That will allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes, including in Gaza City and northern Gaza. With most of Gaza’s population driven into massive, squalid tent camps, Palestinians are desperate to get back to their homes, even though many were destroyed or heavily damaged by Israel’s campaign.

But there are complications. During the past year of negotiations, Israel has insisted it must control the movement of Palestinians to the north to ensure Hamas does not take weapons back into those areas.

Throughout the war, the Israeli military has severed the north from the rest of Gaza by holding the so-called Netzarim Corridor, a belt across the strip where troops cleared out the Palestinian population and set up bases. That allowed them to search people fleeing from the north into central Gaza and bar anyone trying to return.

The draft seen by the AP specifies that Israel is to leave the corridor. In the first week, troops would withdraw from the main north-south coastal road — Rasheed Street — which would open one route for Palestinians returning. By the 22nd day of the ceasefire, Israeli troops are to leave the entire corridor.

Still, as talks continued Tuesday, an Israeli official insisted the military will keep control of Netzarim and that Palestinians returning north would have to pass inspections there, though he declined to provide details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed negotiations.

Working out those contradictions could bring frictions.

Throughout the first phase, Israel will retain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt, including the Rafah Crossing. Hamas dropped demands that Israel pull out of this area.

In the first phase, aid entry to Gaza is to be ramped up to hundreds of trucks a day of food, medicine, supplies and fuel to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. That is far more than Israel has allowed in throughout the war.

For months, aid groups have struggled to distribute to Palestinians even the trickle of aid entering Gaza because of Israeli military restrictions and rampant robberies of aid trucks by gangs. An end to fighting should alleviate that.

The need is great. Malnutrition and diseases are rampant among Palestinians, crammed into tents and short on food and clean water. Hospitals have been damaged and short of supplies. The draft deal specifies that equipment will be allowed in to build shelters for tens of thousands whose homes were destroyed and to rebuild infrastructure like electricity, sewage, communications and road systems.

But here, too, implementation could bring problems.

Even before the war, Israel has restricted entry of some equipment, arguing it could be used for military purposes by Hamas. Another Israeli official said arrangements are still being worked out over aid distribution and cleanup, but the plan is to prevent Hamas from having any role.

Further complicating matters, Israel’s government is still committed to its plan to ban UNRWA from operating and to cut all ties between the agency and the Israeli government. The UN agency is the major distributor of aid in Gaza and provides education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region, including in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

If all of that works out, the sides must still tackle the second phase. Negotiations over it are to begin on Day 16 of the ceasefire.

Phase two’s broad outlines are laid out in the draft: All remaining hostages are to be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm.”

But that seemingly basic exchange opens up much bigger issues.

Israel has said it will not agree to a complete withdrawal until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated and it cannot rearm — ensuring Hamas no longer runs Gaza. Hamas says it will not hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from everywhere in Gaza.

So the negotiations will have to get both sides to agree to an alternative for governing Gaza. Effectively, Hamas has to agree to its own removal from power — something it has said it is willing to do, but it may seek to keep a hand in any future government, which Israel has vehemently rejected.

The draft agreement says a deal on the second phase must be worked out by the end of the first.

Pressure will be on both sides to reach a deal, but what happens if they don’t? It could go in many directions.

Hamas had wanted written guarantees that a ceasefire would continue as long as needed to agree on phase two. It has settled for verbal guarantees from the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

Israel, however, has given no assurances. So Israel could threaten new military action to pressure Hamas in the negotiations or could outright resume its military campaign, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened.

Hamas and the mediators are betting the momentum from the first phase will make it difficult for him to do that. Relaunching the assault would risk losing the remaining hostages — infuriating many against Netanyahu — though stopping short of destroying Hamas will also anger key political partners.

The third phase is likely to be less contentious: The bodies of remaining hostages would be returned in exchange for a 3- to 5-year reconstruction plan to be carried out in Gaza under international supervision.

Smoke billows as buildings lie in ruin in Beit Hanoun, in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, on January 8, 2025
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli military strikes across Gaza killed at least 22 people on Wednesday (January 8, 2025), Palestinian medics said, as international mediators pursued efforts to seal a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.

An airstrike killed at least 10 people in a multi-storey house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, while another killed five in the nearby Zeitoun suburb, medics said.

Also read | Blinken ‘confident’ Gaza ceasefire to come, either under Biden or after

In Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, a total of seven people were killed, they said.

Israel’s military said it struck Hamas militants operating in a school in Jabalia, and that it took steps to minimise risk to civilians.

Such mass casualties are a daily occurrence in Gaza, where more than 46,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel’s 15-month-long assault against Hamas, according to health officials in the enclave.

As Israel continued its bombardments, the United States, Qatar and Egypt were making intensive efforts to reach a ceasefire deal, with one source close to the talks saying this was the most serious attempt to reach a deal so far.

The outgoing U.S. administration has called for a final push for a deal before President Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region view president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 as an unofficial deadline.

“Things are better than ever before, but there is no deal yet,” the source told Reuters.

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said overnight he hopes to have good things to report about Israeli hostages held by the time Trump is sworn in as president. A deal would also involve the release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

The Gaza Health Ministry meanwhile warned that Nasser Hospital and the Gaza European Hospital might stop operations in a few hours unless the Israelis stop restricting the flow of fuel to the hospitals. Israel denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza.

It later said it received a limited amount of fuel that would delay a complete halt of operations until Thursday unless more fuel arrives.

Israel launched its assault after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Its Gaza campaign has laid waste to much of the enclave. Most of the territory’s 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.

On Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said heavy rains and flooding had left families living in damaged tents with up to 30 cm of water in them, “clinging on to survival without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets”.

Israel and Hamas both accuse the other of blocking a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal by adhering to conditions that have torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.

On Tuesday, Hamas stood by its demand that it will only free its remaining hostages if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.

Smoke rises as buildings lie in ruin in Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, on January 5, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli airstrikes killed at least nine Palestinians in two separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday (January 5, 2025), taking the weekend death toll to 97, Palestinian medics said, as U.S. and Arab mediators stepped up efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal.

Health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed five people in a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while another airstrike killed four others in Jabalia in the northern edge of the enclave, where Israeli forces have been operating for three months.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the two incidents.

Earlier on Sunday, the Health Ministry of Gaza said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed at least 88 Palestinians and wounded more than 200 others in the past 24 hours.

In Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, relatives and neighbours rushed to the Zuhd family’s house, which was struck by an Israeli airstrike late on Saturday, killing seven people, medics said. The search continued on Sunday morning for four others believed to be trapped under the rubble.

A hand belonging to one of the dead could be seen amongst the ruins, with the rest of his body buried under collapsed masonry. Three men removed dirt with their bare hands to retrieve bodies and search for possible survivors.

“Three young men, the son’s wife, and three children are still here. We retrieved this cousin of mine. Another cousin has been martyred and is now in the hospital. Approximately 11 people have been martyred here,” Ammar Zuhd, a relative, told Reuters.

Israel says dozens of Hamas militants killed

The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that its forces had attacked more than 100 targets across Gaza over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants. It said it had also destroyed rocket launching sites that had been used to wage rocket attacks on Israel in recent days.

A renewed push is underway to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, and return Israeli hostages who were taken to Gaza, before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

Israeli negotiators were dispatched on Friday to resume talks in Doha brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, while U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which is helping to mediate, urged Hamas to agree to a deal.

Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement as soon as possible, but it was unclear how close the two sides were.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants on communities in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military campaign, with the stated goal of eradicating Hamas, has leveled swathes of the enclave, driving most people from their homes, and has killed 45,805 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.