Palestinians make their way amid destroyed shelters at the site of an Israeli strike that killed a 23-year-old mother and her one-year-old infant at the al-Mawassi camp in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, late on June 29, 2026. AFP
The OIC Secretariat said the report exposes the scale of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide allegedly committed by Israel systematically and deliberately against Palestinian children, including killing, injury, arrest, torture, and various forms of violence, including sexual violence, as well as deprivation of food and medicine and disruption of health and education services.
It called on the international community and the United Nations to take the necessary legal and political measures to implement the report’s recommendations, including ensuring an end to ongoing violations and holding those responsible accountable under international criminal law, and providing international protection for Palestinian children.
The 94-page report, published on 18 June and covering events from October 2023 through 31 March 2026, concludes on reasonable grounds that Israeli occupation forces committed genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against Palestinian children.
The report names specific military units, including the Kfir Brigade, the 162nd Division, and the 98th Division, as bearing responsibility for documented killings.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, found that Israel has killed at least 20,179 Palestinian children and wounded 44,143 in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 7 October 2025, representing 30 percent of all those killed during that period.
The proportion of child fatalities in the current Israel war in Gaza surpasses the toll in all previous Israeli wars on the Strip. During the 2008–2009 and 2014 wars, they accounted for roughly 24 percent of those killed.
The commission's genocide finding rested on three categories of underlying acts: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction.
"Children are not just part of a population; their survival is central to the existence and continuity of the Palestinian group," the commission wrote.
"The sheer number of cases investigated and documented by the Commission showing a clear pattern that children were directly targeted by the Israeli security forces constitutes a key element in the Israeli authorities' genocidal intent."
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. Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, he said, killings continued with "continued disregard" by Israel for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law.
"The destruction of their health, education, and development is irreversible," Muralidhar said.
“By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future," said Muralidhar, who chairs the inquiry.
Israel has ignored 13 requests for information submitted by the commission, according to the body’s report.
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