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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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Nearly one third (30 percent) of those killed in Gaza since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas were children, an independent UN inquiry has said.
The report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, also said that Israeli authorities and security forces had deliberately targeted Palestinian children during the war. The report released Tuesday defines children as those under 18.
These actions by the Israeli military resulted in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank, the report added.
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In response, Israel's mission in Geneva has rejected what it called the Commission's "second defamatory advocacy report," adding that it was a “libelous sham” and that the report ignored "the brutal tactics of Hamas".
A Commission report last September accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, accusations that Israel rejected as scandalous.
When reached for comment by Newsweek, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) referred to the Israeli Mission in Geneva statement shared on X.
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Children Paid Price For Gaza War: Report
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
Israeli attacks since then have killed at least 73,035 people in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are cited by the UN.
According to the Commission's report, at least 20,179 children were killed between October 7, 2023, and October 7, 2025, as a direct result of the hostilities in Gaza—30 percent of the total war dead.
This was a higher proportion than in hostilities in Gaza in 2008–2009 and 2014, when children were among around 24 percent of fatalities. Tuesday's report also said that 44,143 children were injured as a direct result of the hostilities in Gaza, or around 26 percent of those injured.
Children killed in Gaza represent around 2 percent of the territory’s 1.2 million child population by October 2025, and at least 5,031 children under 5 years were killed during this period, of whom 1,029 children were under 1, the report said.
“The Commission notes that the number of children killed and injured from the hostilities in Gaza is certainly higher than the one reported,” the report added, noting that 5,160 children are estimated by Save the Children to be buried under the rubble.
The commission accused Israeli forces of using high-payload munitions and weapons in densely populated residential areas and said they had targeted neonatal and maternity care centers.
It said that children were targeted collectively because the whole civilian population was linked by Israel to Hamas and other armed groups.
Israel's rebuttal said the commission's report omitted Israel's role in helping with vaccinations, medical staff and setting up field hospitals.
Israel also accused Hamas of diverting humanitarian aid and fuel for hospitals, accusations which Hamas has rejected.
The Israeli foreign ministry said the commission was a "fundamentally flawed mechanism whose very purpose is to single out and vilify Israel rather than seek the truth" and also accused the commission of lacking "any credible verification mechanism for its claims".
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, 2025, the third pause since the hostilities began.
But last Friday, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said that 265, or one Palestinian child, has been killed every day, since the truce was declared.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Dan Gooding and Gray R. Thomas.
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