UN: Israel Committed Genocide Against Children in Gaza Even During Ceasefire

A UN report has concluded that Israel continued to deliberately target and commit genocide against Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip even after a ceasefire took effect in October of last year.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which investigated violations of international law against Palestinian children since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, released its findings on June 23 (local time). The report estimates that approximately 30 percent of those killed by the Israeli military were children.

The report pointed out that the Israeli military continued to use heavy munitions and weapons with wide-area lethality in densely populated residential areas, despite the sharp rise in child casualties.

It explained that children were targeted en masse because the Israeli military viewed the entire civilian population of Gaza as being linked to armed groups such as Hamas.

"This is a key element that proves the genocidal intent of Israeli authorities and the military to destroy the Palestinian community in Gaza in whole or in part," the report stated, adding that it "suggests that the attacks that led to the deaths of numerous children were intentional."

Commission Chair Srinivasan Muralidhar criticized the actions in a statement, saying, "By targeting children, Israel is undermining the viability of the Palestinian people and their ability to determine their own future."

The report also found that the health and development of children have been severely threatened by Israel's widespread attacks on Gaza, repeated forced displacements, and the blockade of aid, food, and medicine, leading to preventable deaths and trauma.

Furthermore, the report stated that it has collected and documented evidence of violence against Palestinian children by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as evidence of torture, including sexual violence, cruel treatment, and gender-based violence during mass arrests and detentions.

A previous report by the commission, released in September of last year, also concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that authorities, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had incited such acts.

The Israeli mission in Geneva dismissed the report as "nothing more than slander and fabrication."

Genocide, defined as a crime following World War II and the Holocaust, is considered the most serious international crime.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines it as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.