The essence of childhood has been destroyed": Israel's deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023, published 23 June 2026, document reference
ANALYSIS FOR ASEEKERS: UN Human Rights Council Report A/HRC/62/CRP.2, 18 June 2026 1. KEY FINDINGS AND DOCUMENTED VIOLATIONS The Independent International Commission of Inquiry found that between 7 October 2023 and 7 October 2025, at least 20,179 Palestinian children were killed and 44,143 injured in Gaza, constituting 30 percent of all fatalities, representing the highest child casualty proportion in any recent escalation of hostilities. The Commission documented a consistent, systematic pattern of deliberate targeting of individual children using precision weapons including sniper rifles, drones and quadcopters, with forensic analysis of 15 investigated cases confirming that 12 involved single gunshot wounds consistent with intentional targeting. Israeli security forces were found to have committed wilful killing, extermination, torture, inhuman treatment, persecution, enforced disappearance, sexual and gender-based violence, and the use of starvation as a method of warfare, all constituting crimes against humanity and war crimes under the Rome Statute. Specific investigated incidents include the killing of 5.5-year-old Hind Rajab and her family on 29 January 2024 by the Israeli security forces 401st Brigade, the shooting of a 15-year-old boy holding a white flag by the 98th Division, the shooting of a 10-day-old baby by a quadcopter, and the killing of two brothers aged 10 and nine gathering firewood near the so-called yellow line after the October 2025 ceasefire. The Commission found that Israeli forces deliberately destroyed 97 percent of Gaza's school buildings, forced closure of all three major paediatric hospitals within the first two months of hostilities, and systematically destroyed healthcare infrastructure causing preventable deaths of newborns, including four infants found decomposing in incubators at Al-Nasr Paediatric Hospital after Israeli forces cut electricity and refused adequate evacuation time. The report concludes on reasonable grounds that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, reiterating findings from an earlier Commission report, noting that the deliberate targeting of children is central to establishing genocidal intent to destroy the Palestinian group, as children embody biological and social continuity of the group. In the West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Israeli security forces killed 213 Palestinian children between 7 October 2023 and 20 October 2025, with a disproportionate number of boys killed reflecting a gendered policy of targeting Palestinian males as perceived terrorists, while Israeli settler violence injured 156 boys and eight girls and involved abductions of children at knifepoint. Over 1,655 children were detained in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, with 51 percent held under administrative detention without charge as of 31 December 2025, representing a record number, and a 17-year-old boy died in Megiddo Prison on 22 March 2025 from deliberate starvation and denial of medical care. 2. IMPACT ON ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES SPECIFICALLY While the report does not address asylum seekers and refugees as a distinct legal category, its findings have profound direct relevance for Palestinian asylum seekers and refugees globally and for ASeekers' work in the UK context. The Commission documented that at least 1.9 million people, approximately 90 percent of Gaza's population, were forcibly displaced internally by October 2025, with families displaced up to ten times, creating a massive population with well-founded fears of persecution that forms the factual basis for asylum claims under the 1951 Refugee Convention. The systematic destruction of Gaza's civilian infrastructure including 97 percent of schools, all major paediatric hospitals, orphanages, and water and sanitation systems means that returned Palestinians would face conditions incompatible with life, strengthening non-refoulement arguments against any forced return of Palestinian asylum seekers. Palestinian children who have experienced torture, sexual violence, witnessing of family killings, amputation, and severe malnutrition as documented in this report will present with complex trauma profiles requiring specialist support from organisations like ASeekers when they arrive in the UK as unaccompanied minors or with families. The Commission's findings that at least 17,000 to 18,000 children in Gaza are unaccompanied or separated from families by October 2025, and that 58,554 children lost one or both parents in two years, means that Palestinian children arriving in the UK as asylum seekers are very likely to be unaccompanied minors requiring immediate child protection interventions. The report's documentation of children being held incommunicado in Israeli detention facilities, transferred outside occupied territory contrary to international humanitarian law, and subjected to enforced disappearance means that some Palestinian asylum seekers arriving in the UK may have experienced prior detention and torture that must be sensitively identified during asylum interviews. Children who survived attacks on schools and have been out of formal education for three full academic years, as documented by the Commission, will require intensive educational support, and the report's findings about irreversible language and cognitive developmental delays caused by education deprivation should inform how UK statutory services assess and support Palestinian child asylum seekers. The Commission's findings about the deliberate use of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinian boys and girls in detention, including rape and genital violence, and the deep cultural stigma around male victimisation, means that Palestinian asylum seekers may not voluntarily disclose these experiences, requiring trauma-informed approaches that ASeekers and partner organisations should implement. 3. COUNTRIES OR ENTITIES RESPONSIBLE The report identifies Israel as the primary responsible party, acting through its government, the Israeli security forces, the Israeli Prison Service, and Israeli settlers, all of whose conduct the Commission finds attributable to the Israeli state. The Commission specifically identifies multiple Israeli military units responsible for documented killings of children, including the Kfir Brigade, 162nd Division and 401st Brigade, 98th Division, 99th Division, Multi-Dimensional Unit 888, Duvdevan Unit, 417th Territorial Brigade, Menashe Brigade, Ephraim Brigade, and a Paratrooper Battalion under the 431st Territorial Brigade. The report attributes responsibility to named Israeli political and military figures who issued or endorsed permissive rules of engagement, including references to statements by Knesset members, the National Security Minister, and military commanders who expanded open-fire orders in the West Bank. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups are acknowledged to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against Israeli children on 7 October 2023, including killing 40 children, abducting children as hostages, and using children for propaganda, though the primary focus of this report is on Israeli conduct given its role as the occupying power with specific obligations under international humanitarian law. 4. RECOMMENDATIONS MADE IN THE REPORT The Commission makes extensive recommendations across six categories. To Israel, the Commission calls for the immediate halt of military operations including near the yellow line, withdrawal to 1967 boundaries, implementation of ICJ provisional measures from January, March and May 2024, compliance with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's September 2024 recommendations, individual and command accountability for crimes against children, ending arbitrary and administrative detention of children, releasing data on child detainees, returning bodies of deceased children, ending attacks on hospitals and schools, guaranteeing safe medical evacuations, facilitating unrestricted humanitarian access, protecting Palestinians from settler violence, engaging in structured dialogue with Palestinian authorities on child protection, developing a Children and Armed Conflict Action Plan, and cooperating with the ICC. To Member States, the report recommends arresting Israeli officials subject to ICC warrants, ceasing arms transfers to Israel, conducting universal jurisdiction investigations, imposing targeted sanctions on Israeli officials and extremist settlers, and supporting political solutions based on Palestinian self-determination. To the UN Security Council, the Commission recommends prohibiting all military-related trade with Israel, imposing comprehensive sanctions, and holding a dedicated debate on Palestinian children. To the UN General Assembly, it recommends a resolution calling for a military trade ban and a stock-taking session on ICJ advisory opinion compliance. To the UN Secretary-General, it recommends expanding Israel's listing in children and armed conflict annexes to include abduction, listing Israeli settlers as persistent perpetrators, issuing standalone country reports, prioritising monitoring of sexual violence against Palestinian children, and incorporating denial of humanitarian assistance into Israel's action plan. To the ICC Prosecutor, it recommends prioritising crimes against children within the Palestine investigation and examining officials identified in the report. 5. ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS AVAILABLE OR USED The enforcement landscape identified in the report reflects a significant gap between legal obligations and practical enforcement. The International Court of Justice issued binding provisional measures against Israel on 26 January, 28 March, and 24 May 2024 in South Africa v. Israel under the Genocide Convention, and issued an advisory opinion on 19 July 2024 on the illegality of Israeli occupation, but the Commission explicitly notes that Israel continues to blatantly disregard both the provisional measures and the advisory opinion. The ICC issued arrest warrants