UN inquiry finds Israel committed age-based persecution of Palestinian children in West Bank
Israeli authorities and forces have committed the crime against humanity of age-based persecution against Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, the UN's top investigative body on Palestine and Israel has concluded, while also accusing Israel of continuing its genocide in Gaza despite a ceasefire agreement.
In its fifth report to the UN General Assembly, published on Monday, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, said Israeli forces had "deliberately killed and caused serious bodily and mental harm to Palestinian children on account of their status as Palestinian children".
The report said the harm inflicted on children "is not incidental or collateral" to the wider violence, but "forms part of a pattern of intentional violence directed against Palestinian children", amounting to the crime against humanity of persecution.
Between 7 October 2023 and 30 September 2026, Israeli forces killed 1,080 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, among them at least 237 boys and seven girls, and wounded 10,940, according to UN figures cited in the report.
In one case documented by the commission, a seven-month-old baby was killed and both parents were wounded when an Israeli soldier opened fire on their car in Hebron on 5 June 2026.
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Video footage showed the father slowing down, stopping and raising his hands before the soldier fired two rounds into the car without warning, shooting the baby in the head. No medical assistance was provided.
The Israeli army said a member of the Yehuda Brigade had fired because the car accelerated towards soldiers. The commission said that at a range of 10 metres, the soldier would have had a clear view of those inside.
In Tammun, in Tubas Governorate, on 15 March 2026, Israeli forces fired on a car carrying a family of six, killing the mother, father and their two youngest sons. The two older sons were wounded and then assaulted by soldiers.
The commission said it was not aware of any effective investigations, disciplinary or judicial measures in any of the cases it examined, and that the absence of accountability "has entrenched a discriminatory system" in which crimes against Palestinian children are "repeatedly committed with impunity".
The findings come following a damning report by the same commission in June accusing Israeli forces of deliberately targeting Palestinian children as a central element of their genocide in Gaza.
Crimes against humanity
The commission also concluded that Israeli military operations in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, together with settler violence, form a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population, the constituent element of crimes against humanity.
"The attack requires a high level of coordination and organised planning, indicating the existence of a policy to attack the civilian population," the report said.
"The Commission finds that the Israeli authorities utilised settler violence to target the Palestinian civilian population, and intended settlers’ conduct to form part of the ‘attack’ against the civilian population."
The commission added that it considered the killing of Aysenur Eygi, a US and Turkish dual citizen, a crime against humanity as well, because "she was perceived by the Israeli soldiers as part of the targeted population".
It also found that Israeli authorities and forces had committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, other inhumane acts, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and persecution on the grounds of nationality, race and ethnicity.
"The intentional killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians and destruction of homes in the West Bank combined with Israel's persistent denial of responsibility form part of a broader strategy to exterminate and displace Palestinians and impose conditions of life that are unliveable," Srinivasan Muralidhar, the commission's chair, said in a press statement.
The report found that Israeli rules of engagement in the West Bank had been broadened after 7 October 2023 and applied exclusively to Palestinians, while soldiers were prohibited from using lethal force against Jewish Israelis in a similar manner.
It cited Major General Avi Bluth, head of Central Command, as saying in May 2026 that soldiers were "killing like we haven't since 1967".
It also cited Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich saying in November 2023 that there are "two million Nazis" in the West Bank, and a year later stating that "the new Nazis have to pay a price in the territory that will be taken from them forever both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria".
It noted that air strikes have killed 254 Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, compared with six between 2008 and that date.
'Soldiers intentionally killed all the victims'
The commission said it investigated seven cases, and documented six others, of killings and acts causing bodily and mental harm against Palestinians between November 2023 and June 2026 as evidence of the more permissive rules of engagement.
"In these cases, the victims were unarmed and did not pose a threat; in the majority of instances, victims were children, including an infant," the report said.
"Israeli personnel used lethal force without warning, targeting victims’ head and/or upper part of their body," it added.
"In all cases, security personnel should have been able to identify that the victim posed no imminent threat. The Commission concludes that Israeli soldiers intentionally killed all the victims."
'In all cases, security personnel should have been able to identify that the victim posed no imminent threat'
- UN inquiry
The commission described Operation Iron Wall, launched in January 2025, as reflecting "the import of the Gaza strategy of total destruction" into the territory.
Military operations since then have caused the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967, with 34,176 people still displaced as of August 2026.
As an illustrative example of permissive rules of engagement, the commission found that Israel's killing of Turkish-American activist Eygi, shot in the head near Beita on 6 September 2024, amounted to the war crime of wilful killing, concluding that the soldier responsible "deliberately targeted the victim, with the intent to kill her".
It also verified four further cases of sexual violence in Israeli detention since its March 2025 report, including the gang rape of a male detainee with objects at Megiddo prison.
The commission said it applied the same methodology and standard of proof used in its previous investigations, drawing on witness testimony, digital footage, open-source reports and, in some cases, satellite imagery and visual and damage-pattern analysis.
It sent two requests for information each to Israel and to the State of Palestine. Palestine responded; Israel did not.
Israeli authorities have consistently denied entry visas and access to the commission members, barring them from entering Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza to collect on-the-ground evidence or interview witnesses
Gaza genocide continues
The commission, which already concluded last year that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, found that Israeli authorities and forces "continue to commit genocidal acts with the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in Gaza".
Since the October 2025 ceasefire, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,431 people, including at least 300 children, and wounded 5,026, figures the report said contradicted claims made to the Security Council that the ceasefire had largely held.
At least 196 Palestinians were killed near the so-called Yellow Line between 10 October 2025 and early April 2026.
The report said the line had become an encroaching de facto border, with Israeli-controlled territory expanding from 53 percent of Gaza to at least 60 percent by September.
"Israel's expansion of territorial control in Gaza continues to result in the killing and harming of Palestinian civilians who approach or cross the Yellow Line," Muralidhar said.
The commission also found that sexual violence, including rape, against two participants in the Global Sumud Flotilla in 2025 amounted to crimes against humanity, including persecution based on gender, sexual orientation and political affiliation.
Examining the root causes of violence, the commission concluded that Israel had "continuously striven to expand territorially and displace Palestinians through violence" since the 1947-48 war, citing Smotrich's September 2025 statement that the principle for applying sovereignty was "maximum land with minimum population".
'Israel's expansion of territorial control in Gaza continues to result in the killing and harming of Palestinian civilians who approach or cross the Yellow Line'
- Srinivasan Muralidhar, commission chair
"Attempting to equate Palestinian statehood with a threat to the existence of Israel is blocking any viable attempts to realize Palestinians' right to self-determination," Muralidhar said.
The commission urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor to examine the crimes for possible amendment of existing arrest warrants and future applications.
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023.
More recently, the office of the prosecutor has applied for an arrest warrant for Smotrich over crimes committed against Palestinians in the West Bank, including the crime against humanity of apartheid.
The ICC has yet to investigate genocide, but the International Court of Justice is currently examining a case brought by South Africa against Israel accusing it of breaching the Genocide Convention in its war on Gaza since 2023.
Palestinian Authority
The commission found that the State of Palestine had violated the right to life over the killing of a man by Palestinian security forces at a checkpoint in Jenin on 9 December 2024, during the Palestinian Authority's (PA) Operation Protect the Homeland.
It accused the PA of targeting Palestinians who express dissenting views, including journalists and human rights defenders.
It investigated the killing of a female journalism student in the Jenin refugee camp on 28 December 2024, who witnesses said had been threatened by a member of the security forces the previous day.
"Despite an increase in unnecessary or disproportionate use of force since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Authority has failed to conduct effective and impartial investigations into incidents of killings and to ensure effective remedy, including financial compensation to victims and their family members," Muralidhar said.
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