Published Jun 24, 2026 | 1:05 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 24, 2026 | 1:05 PM
Srinivas Muralidhar was the ex-Chief Justice of Odisha High Court.
Synopsis: The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has presented indisputable evidence of the genocidal targeting of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in its report. Justice Srinivasan Muralidhar, the Chair of the Commission, highlighted the barbarity of the crimes and spoke of how the children will find it hard to recover from the trauma even if all the guns were to fall silent.
The essence of childhood has been destroyed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, with Israel guilty of widespread and systematic killing and harming of Palestinian children even after the October 2025 ceasefire, a UN Commission of Inquiry has found in a new report released on Tuesday, June 23.
The Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory is Srinivasan Muralidhar, ex-Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court.
The report he tabled highlighted indisputable evidence of the “use of torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, including use of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinian children” by Israeli forces.
It said sexual violence against children was being used as part of the collective shaming and oppression of the people there.
The Commission also held Israel guilty of genocide.
“Three of the four categories of genocide are especially relevant to children (in Occupied Palestine), namely (i) killing members of the group; (ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; and (iii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” the report stated.
It also noted how the plight of “child detainees from Gaza remains unknown as the Israeli authorities have not disclosed the data nor the whereabouts of the arrested children.”
“You are going to Israel; you are going to hell,” it quoted an Israeli soldier as saying to a “blindfolded and handcuffed 15-year-old boy” bundled into an Israeli truck.
20,179 children have been killed with 44,143 injured since Israel began its genocidal campaign on October 7, 2023, the Commission said.
About one-third of Israel’s victims have been children and “the killing and injuring of children has been a continuing activity” (after the October 10, 2025 ceasefire), its highly disturbing findings stated.
“It is difficult for Palestinians to know where the yellow line is, as it is just some yellow blocks placed at random distances 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 recognised line; it’s an arbitrary line by Israeli security forces,” a doctor was quoted as saying by the Commission.
The report quoted one such incident.
“On November 29, 2025, two brothers, aged 10 and nine, were killed in an Israeli drone strike near Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The boys were gathering firewood for their wheelchair-bound father when the strike occurred. Israeli security forces stated that soldiers spotted two ‘suspects’ crossing the ‘yellow line’, acting suspiciously and approaching their forces, so a drone eliminated the ‘immediate threat’,” it said.
“The evidence shows that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Justice Muralidhar in his briefing. “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.”
“Children are being killed mainly in two ways. One, through airstrikes using high-yield explosives with wide area effects, and second, using quadcopters, drones, and sniper rifles that specifically target and kill children to their head and upper body,” he explained.
A doctor, who visited Gaza on a medical mission, and who was quoted by the Commission, spoke of the barbarity with which the Israeli forces were targeting their victims.
“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 suggests this is a deliberate aiming of different body parts [of children],” he said.
The Commission’s report captured how “severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation, and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood and will continue to affect children in Gaza throughout their lives.”
“Even if the bombs and guns fall silent in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian children will not simply recover overnight,” said Justice Muralidhar. “The destruction of their health, education and development is irreversible.”
“By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future,” he went on to add.
The Commission’s report also documented how Israel has portrayed Palestinian children as “terrorists”.
“Several media reports in reputable Israeli media outlets point to directives issued by the Israeli security forces which include intentionally targeting children. In December 2024, Haaretz included testimonies of Israeli soldiers admitting to turning killing into an internal competition, with each soldier competing with how many civilians they can kill and classifying their victims, including children, as ‘terrorists’,” it noted.
“The Commission notes a broad pattern of a permissive military culture in which Israeli soldiers are encouraged to directly target Palestinian children with or without directives from superior commanders,” it added.
The Commission noted that Israel had refused to respond to its requests for information.
“Since October 7, 2023, the Commission has sent 13 requests for information and/or access to the Government of Israel, four requests for information to the State of Palestine and one request for information to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip. The State of Palestine and the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip provided information to the Commission. No responses were received from the Government of Israel,” the report noted.
Some, like journalist Suhasini Haidar, meanwhile, questioned the Indian government’s silence on the issue and the latest report.
“This is a damning report on the targeting of children by Israeli forces 2023-2025. Awaiting MEA (the Ministry of External Affairs) response,” she tweeted.
Also Read: India urged to arrest touring Israeli soldier over Gaza war crimes by pro-Palestine NGO
