07/06/2026
There is a line in the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry report, released on June 23, 2026, that ought to stop the world cold. The commission’s chair, Srinivasan Muralidhar, stated without qualification, “By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future.” This is not the language of diplomatic reprimand. It is the language of genocide and the commission uses that word deliberately, having already concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza. The June report adds the unbearable specificity: it is the children who are the primary instrument and target of this genocide.
Between October 7, 2023, and March 31, 2026 – a period spanning two years and five months – at least 20,179 Palestinian children were killed, with a further 44,143 injured. Children constituted approximately 30% of the total death toll, a proportion higher than any previous conflict involving Israel and higher than the comparative averages from the 2008-2009 and 2014 Gaza wars, when children made up approximately 24% of the fatalities.
These are not deaths attributable to the general chaos of urban warfare. The commission documents a pattern of individual children being killed by single sniper or drone shots, typically in the head or upper torso. According to doctors on medical missions, Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers appeared to be engaged in what they described as a “game” of target practice, with “different body parts being targeted on different days.” The commission concluded, on the basis of forensic evidence and military analysis, that there are reasonable grounds to believe some children were deliberately attacked.
Read more on thewire.in
