The UNITED NATIONS has been shown to be a 'TOOTHLESS TIGER' - And the Primary reason is the existence of the VETO power which is held by the 5 Permanent States, including the USA. With the VETO power, the VETO can prevent the UN from acting even though the majority of UN member States wants to act definitely against violation of human rights and injustices. The use of the VETO can even prevent the UN Security Council from passing Resolutions against States that clearly violates INTERNATIONAL LAW and even the UN Charter itself.
France on Tuesday said 11 new African countries have backed its joint
initiative with Mexico to limit the inappropriate use of vetoes at the
UN Security Council...Foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot later wrote on X that “11 new African
countries” had given their support during the Kenya summit, taking the
total number of backers to 118...The resolution would be non-binding even if adopted by a two-thirds majority. Officials hope to make it more difficult
for a permanent member of the council – Britain, China, France, Russia
and the US – to use its veto in such cases.
# To remove the VETO, it needs a vote of 2/3 UN Member States, and the agreement of the 5 permanent member States that have the VETO - so literally impossible. Likewise the UN also cannot EXPEL the US or any of the permanent member with VETO power. So, is the ONLY solution the formation of a NEW United Nations with NO VETO POWER?
US clearly violated International Law and the UN Charter when it waged war on Venezuela and kidnapped the President of that UN member State;
The US and Israel clearly violated International Law and the UN Charter when it suddenly waged war on IRAN...
BUT, the UNITED NATIONS cannot act because any UN Resolution condemning US (and Israel) actions will not pass because US (and its allies) will use the VETO POWER to block it...
MALAYSIANS had for a long time stood up against INJUSTICE and violations of human rights - Malaysia had a reputation, although being a small nation, is being BRAVE and standing up against the most powerful nations when it comes to issues of justice and human rights'
MALAYSIA's response had not been simply because of the ethnicity or religion of the victims or the perpetrators > it had been PRINCIPLED and based on the values/belief that we hold especially when it comes to INJUSTICES outside Malaysia - hence our strong stance against Zionist Israel, NOT all JEWS, for the human rights violations it committed against the Palestinian people(Muslims, Christians and Jews)
Malaysia, like many countries, are now infected by FEAR especially of retaliation of big countries like the US, more so when Trump is President. NOW, the US has even fallen further down in its respect for Justice and Human Rights
# We are APPALLED by the US action that chose to attack a sovereign nation of Venezuella, and the 'kidnapping' and removal of its President by the US in violation of international law (Would Malaysians tolerate such an attack, and the taking of our Prime Minister or King by any other nation? I am sure Malaysians and all good people in the world will not > so, what should we do?). We will certainly not tolerate US or any other country that tries to STEAL our natural resources/sovereignty and try to get us how to deal with our Petroleum and wealth...
# We will not tolerate the ILLEGAL US-Israel illegal war against IRAN - where the perpetrators targets and kills off our leaders, and want to return IRAN to what it was 47 years ago when US and some other western nations again wanted our Petroleum and a 'share' in our natural resources. (Are we OK if the US insist that our petroleum profits are SHARED with US companies?)
# Likewise, we will NOT tolerate what US is doing - in making Cuba another Gaza > where needed resources for life is being cut off by US like petroleum, etc ..
# Likewise, we will not tolerate the almost 80 years of what Israel has been doing to the people of Palestine - the genocide, the killing and the OCCUPATION and control of the land of Palestine. Even the formation of Israel by the then United Nations is a VIOLATION of the right of self determination (where the inhabitants DECIDE whether they want to divide its land based on religion/ethnicity or NOT - if the people said OK to Israel - Palestine division, it is OK > but they were neither asked or consulted >> the British Colonial Government and the United Nations decided. Now, Israel, after UN determined its borders - committed GENOCIDE > they 'forced' non-Jews out of their homes/land and still is continuing to do so. Israel has still NOT even retreated back to its borders as determined by UN - but it is still not just 'expanding its borders' BUT also sweeping the residents out...ISRAEL today may be MOST EVIL nation..and sadly the UNITED NATIONS or other nation states have failed to stop these GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION..
# UN may have become a 'toothless tiger" unable to ACT because of US's use of the VETO - but within UN there are still people that TRY - this report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,and Israel is one such example >> and their recent finding that ISRAEL had been deliberately targeting CHILDREN is such - possibly in line with their GENOCIDAL AGENDA - killing off children can END any ethnic group??? READ THE REPORT - How should MALAYSIA respond?
Let us also not forget the GENOCIDE in Myanmar - and the ongoing injustices being inflicted on the minorities in MYANMAR..
Time for us to ask WHAT SHOULD WE DO? Some government, out of FEAR, ends with lame responses of mere words - some do BETTER > Has Malaysia at the very least made a FORMAL PROTEST against such 'evil nations' - has it gone further in moving RESOLUTIONS at the UN (as it once did - see the draft RESOLUTION moved by Malaysia and other countries
MALAYSIANS CANNOT IGNORE INJUSTICE AND RIGHTS VIOLATIONS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT DIRECTLY AFFECTED - ultimately it will affect us...Now, under PM Anwar Ibrahim and the MADANI Government, things seems to have changed...
Malaysian stance have weakened - WHY? Is it because Anwar is 'closer' with Trump - and as such do not want to anger TRUMP or the US...??
See also:-
Note: The excerpt of the report is reproduced below; footnotes
have been omitted from this post and are available in the original PDF
report.
18 June 2026
“The essence of childhood has been destroyed”: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023
Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including East Jerusalem,and Israel
Summary:
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel examines
violations and crimes against and affecting Palestinian children,
including serious physical and psychological harm by the Israeli
security forces since 7 October 2023 resulting in the death of at least
20,179 and injury of 44,143 children.
The paper describes the deliberate targeting and killing of
Palestinian children, including post-ceasefire since the October 2025
Gaza peace plan. The Commission also examines a sharp increase in
violence perpetrated by members of Israeli settlers against Palestinian
children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The Commission examines the use of torture, inhumane and degrading
treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, against
Palestinian children, particularly during mass arrests and in detention.
It analyses pattern of Israel’s targeting of critical infrastructure
essential to children, such as healthcare facilities and its short- to
long-term consequences, as well as the impact of reproductive violence
on newborns, resulting in poor neonatal health and birthing outcomes;
attacks on orphanages and schools, impacting the loss of care for
orphans and unaccompanied children, and inducing academic harm and
learning disruptions for children, respectively.
The Commission examines the impact of the conditions of life imposed
by Israel in Gaza resulting in preventable mortality of children,
exacerbating morbidity, and serious mental trauma from the relentless
and widespread attacks by Israel over two years – collectively revealing
severe, multi-layered harm to Palestinian children’s survival, health,
and development. Further, the Commission examines how Israeli soldiers
mock and weaponize symbols of childhood in Gaza, raising ethical,
disciplinary and legal questions about the conduct of the Israeli
security forces during the ground invasion of Gaza.
Lastly, the Commission provides recommendations to diverse
stakeholders for the cessation of attacks, reparations, accountability
and international enforcement of sanctions – aimed at advancing
child-responsive justice.
I. Introduction
1. This Conference Room Paper (CRP) of the Independent International
Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem, and Israel (the Commission) examines Israeli violations
and crimes against Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, as well as their short- to long-term impact on children,
between 7 October 2023 and 31 March 2026. The Commission has published
four mandated reports and four conference room papers since 7 October
2023.
2. This report presents the Commission’s new and expanded findings on
the intentional targeting, arrests and ill-treatment, sexual and
gender-based violence, attacks on educational facilities and healthcare,
and the conditions imposed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory which
directly affect children. For the purpose of this report, a ‘child’
means “every human being below the age of 18 years”, consistent with
article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
3. Since 7 October 2023, the Commission has sent 13 requests for
information and/or access to the Government of Israel, four requests for
information to the State of Palestine and one request for information
to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip. The State of Palestine and
the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip provided information to the
Commission. No responses were received from the Government of Israel.
4. The Commission’s comprehensive findings on violations and abuses
against Israeli children committed by the military wing of Hamas and
other Palestinian armed groups on and since 7 October 2023 were
presented in its reports to the Human Rights Council in June 2024 and to
the General Assembly in October 2024, as well as in a separate
conference room paper published in June 2024.
5. In these reports, the Commission found that Israeli children were
subjected to physical and emotional mistreatment on 7 October 2023. In
addition to the 40 children who were killed and hundreds injured, many
children lost one or both parents. Many children witnessed the killings
of their parents and siblings and were also filmed for propaganda
purposes by Palestinian armed groups who published videos depicting
Israeli children in vulnerable positions while they were under the
control of the armed elements. The Commission finds it particularly
egregious that children were targeted for abduction, several of them
taken alone. The Commission concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian
armed groups committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including
against Israeli children and child hostages.
II. Methodology
6. The report brings together the Commission’s findings on violations
and crimes against and affecting Palestinian children in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory from 7 October 2023 until 31 March 2026, with a
particular focus on the Gaza Strip (Gaza).
7. The Commission applied an integrated child rights analysis in
preparing this report to examine holistically all aspects of Palestinian
children’s lives and development, including the harm caused by Israeli
attacks on their physical, emotional, social and cognitive well-being.
8. The Commission applied the same methodology and standard of proof
previously adopted for all its investigations. Multiple sources of
information were consulted; thousands of open-source items were
collected and verified; and remote and in-person interviews and group
discussions with victims and witnesses were conducted. The Commission
attempted, to the extent possible, to incorporate children’s own
perspectives through carrying out interviews and group discussions with
them. The Commission’s interactions with children were conducted in
alignment with the principles of ‘best interests of the child’ and ‘do
no harm’ and the right of the child to participate and to be heard in
matters affecting them. Informed consent was obtained in accordance with
the established protocols. Prior to engaging with a child, the
Commission received informed consent from a parent, caregiver or other
appropriate adult (such as a guardian or other adult associated with
organizations with a duty of care towards the child), after which the
Commission obtained verbal and informed consent and assent of the child
(depending on the age), indicating their willingness to participate.
9. In conducting interviews for this report, the Commission
recognised and attempted to minimize the risk of re-traumatising
children and their families, especially when they had lost a child.
Where it assessed that the risk of re-traumatization was high, the
Commission did not contact the family directly but relied on information
already collected by independent national and international
organizations as well as open-source published photographs and videos
assessed as ‘credible’ and used for the purposes of analysis and
corroboration.
10. The Commission received information from healthcare workers,
members of academia, journalists and lawyers who had been in contact
with victims and their families. The Commission received evidence, such
as medical reports including x-radiation (xrays), photographs, videos
and audio statements of patients who had given consent to share this
information with the Commission. The Commission consulted two
independent forensic pathologists who provided forensic analysis of the
evidence, including computed tomography (CT)-scans, medical reports,
photographs and videos, of the children who were shot and either killed
or maimed. Open-source material was forensically collected in accordance
with international standards on the preservation of web-based content
and rules of admissibility of digital evidence. Where needed,
open-source material was verified through comprehensive
cross-referencing with a broad, varied collection of reputable sources
and complemented by advanced forensic examination, including visual
media authentication, geolocation and chrono-location analysis, metadata
extraction and face recognition. A full list of sources used for the
present report is on file with the Commission.
11. The Commission has sought to include a broad range of topics and
themes in the report and is aware that in addition there are other
issues that fall within the scope of violations against children in
armed conflict. This includes reports of the use of children by the
parties to the conflict. These have not yet been investigated by the
Commission.
III. Applicable legal framework
12. Under international law, the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, remains
subject to belligerent occupation by Israel, to which international
humanitarian law applies concurrently with international human rights
law. The Commission finds that Gaza continues to be under Israeli
occupation because of, inter alia, Israel’s control over the enclave’s
airspace, territorial waters and land border crossings, as well as the
re-establishment of an Israeli military presence and control on the
ground in Gaza since October 2023. This has been affirmed by the
International Court of Justice in July 2024. 8 Israel therefore is bound
by the obligations incumbent upon an occupying power under
international humanitarian law, as set forth in the Fourth Geneva
Convention9 and customary international law, including the Regulations
annexed to the 1907 Hague Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and
Customs of War on Land (“1907 Hague Regulations”).
13. The Commission affirms that children are rights holders whose
rights are enshrined in human rights instruments. Children are entitled
to all the rights of human beings, as well as rights held by them alone
as children, including under article 25 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UDHR),10 which entitles them to special care, assistance
and social protection, and under the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC). This heightened protection applies to all Palestinian
children under the occupation of Israel, as an occupying power, in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. This special
status of children is stipulated under international human rights law,
international humanitarian law, international criminal law and customary
international law, which together recognise that persons under 18 have
distinct needs and vulnerabilities that require additional safeguards in
situations of armed conflict, occupation and law enforcement.
14. Israel has signed and ratified the CRC and two of its optional
protocols, and therefore is legally bound by their provisions.11 The CRC
obliges Israel to respect and ensure all rights in the Convention to
every child within its jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind,
including on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, disability,
gender, religion or other status, thereby covering Palestinian children
across the occupied territory where Israel exercises effective control.
The CRC requires Israel, inter alia, to ensure for Palestinian children:
(i) enjoyment of all rights without discrimination; (ii) their best
interests as a primary consideration in all decisions affecting them;
(iii) protection of their right to life, survival and development; and
(iv) respect for their right to be heard and to have their views taken
into account in all matters affecting them. The CRC protects children
from unlawful or arbitrary detention, allows lawful detention only as a
last resort and for the shortest appropriate time, and requires humane
treatment, access to assistance, family contact, and the ability to
challenge detention for those who are detained. Other human rights
treaties binding on Israel reinforce and deepen these special
protections for Palestinian children.
15. During its review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
(UN Committee) in September 2024, Israel maintained its longstanding
position that it does not have legal responsibility under the CRC for
Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
Gaza. The UN Committee, in its Concluding Observations adopted on 13
September 2024, again regretted this position of Israel, characterizing
it as a repeated denial of Israel’s obligations towards Palestinian
children. The Commission, aligning its position with that of the UN
Committee, reaffirms that Israel, as a State party to the CRC, is
obligated to ensure the protection of children’s rights beyond its
sovereign territory where it exercises effective control, including
Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
16. Customary international law recognises that children in armed
conflict are entitled to special protection, including priority access
to relief, safeguards in evacuation and family reunification, and
prohibits their recruitment or use in hostilities. Together with treaty
law, it requires Israel to treat Palestinian children as a particularly
protected group whose specific needs must guide all security,
administrative and military decisions.
17. International humanitarian law applies in Gaza, which is
considered to be under belligerent occupation. Based on the Fourth
Geneva Convention, its Additional Protocol I16 and the 1907 Hague
Regulations, the Commission notes that Palestinian children are
“protected persons” and benefit from broad protections. Israel must
avoid attacks expected to cause excessive incidental civilian harm,
including to children, relative to anticipated legitimate military
advantage. It must take all feasible precautions to minimise harm – such
as choosing appropriate means/methods, suspending disproportionate
attacks and issuing effective warnings where possible – and specially
protect densely populated areas, schools, hospitals and facilities
essential to children’s survival. The obligation to minimise harm
includes the provision of medical care and evacuation to civilians,
including children, injured as a result of military operations.
18. As an occupying power, Israel has extensive duties towards the
protected civilian population, especially children: it must, to the
fullest extent of the means available, ensure the provision of adequate
food and medical supplies, maintain medical and hospital services, and
facilitate the work of relief organisations to meet children’s needs. It
is prohibited from imposing collective penalties or other measures that
result in widespread deprivation among children.
19. Internment or administrative detention of protected civilians
should be an exceptional measure of last resort, permissible only when
the security of the detaining power makes it “absolutely necessary”.
20. Where children are deprived of liberty, lawfully or unlawfully,
international humanitarian law requires that they be treated at all
times with humanity and protected from all acts of violence,
intimidation, insults and public curiosity. Children must be held in
conditions that fully take account of their age and needs: they should
be accommodated separately from unrelated adults (unless it is
demonstrably in their best interests not to be), in facilities that
safeguard their physical and mental health and provide adequate space,
light, ventilation, sanitation and nutrition, as well as access to
education, recreation and age-appropriate health care. Regular contact
with their families must be facilitated as a matter of priority through
visits, correspondence and other means of communication, recognising the
centrality of family life to a child’s well-being. Prolonged or
indefinite internment, internment without effective periodic review or
based on secret evidence, or harsh and punitive regimes aimed at
breaking children’s will or extracting information conflict in all
circumstances with the combined requirements of international
humanitarian law and international human rights law and other juvenile
justice instruments.
21. Under international humanitarian law, the dead, including
children, must be respected and their remains treated with dignity.
Parties to the conflict must facilitate recovery, identification and,
wherever possible, return their remains to families to enable burial in
accordance with religious and cultural traditions and to permit
relatives to mourn.
22. The Commission reiterates that Israel’s existing obligations
under international humanitarian law and international human rights law
are mutually reinforcing in providing protection for Palestinian
children against all violations.
23. International criminal law, as codified in the Rome Statute and
customary international law, defines genocide, crimes against humanity,
and war crimes25 and recognises that these offences may be committed
against children and produce childspecific harms. Crimes under the Rome
Statute can have age-specific elements in their intent, commission or
consequences, including when the conduct is directed at children as a
distinct group or when children undergo particular forms of suffering.
24. Children enjoy special protection due to their inherent
vulnerability and subordinate status, compounded by discrimination that
heightens their risk of harm and impedes enjoyment of their human
rights. It is also essential to recognise that abuse of power, central
to such inequities and discrimination, exposes children to specific
vulnerabilities, including sexual violence and exploitation,
particularly in captivity or conflict settings.
25. The Commission recognises children as independent rights holders
under international law and reiterates that crimes against and affecting
children are a priority for the Commission’s investigative and
accountability work, as stated in the Commission’s first report to the
Human Rights Council in May 2022 (A/HRC/50/21, para.13). Furthermore,
the Commission refers to its previous recommendation in September 2023
(A/78/198, para. 83) that the UN Secretary-General list Israel in the
annexes of the next annual report [2024] on children and armed conflict,
following which the Israeli security forces were listed in the annexes
of the 2024 Secretary General’s Annual Report in connection with grave
violations, particularly for killing and maiming of Palestinian children
and attacks on schools and hospitals, signalling sustained concern
about patterns of serious harm to children and reinforcing the need for
independent and effective investigations to bring those responsible to
justice where appropriate.
/…
VIII. Conclusions
352. As an occupying power, Israel is legally bound to ensure the
protection, care and survival of Palestinian children. However, through
the nature, scale and extent of Israel’s military operations in Gaza,
the Israeli government and security forces have deliberately carried out
acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on hundreds of
thousands of Palestinian children, irreparably destroying the sanctity
of childhood, including family ties, identity, innocence, safety and
future. The Commission found that much of the harm suffered by
Palestinian children was not incidental but intended to destroy the
existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group. Since children embody
the biological and social continuity of the group, the Commission has
reasonable grounds to conclude that these acts form part of a deliberate
strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza by targeting
their children.
353. The protection, care, and survival of Palestinian children and
pregnant women, are inextricably linked to the Palestinian people’s
fundamental right to selfdetermination, as children represent the future
bearers of their collective identity and resilience. By targeting
children, Israel is eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian
society, weakening the demographic vitality, and overall capacity of the
Palestinian people to sustain and exercise its right to determine its
future as a people.
354. Israel has targeted Palestinian children in Gaza in two distinct
ways: directly by shooting at their vital organs using precision
weapons such as quadcopters and snipers; and through use of high impact
weapons causing widespread and systematic attacks on residential
buildings, schools, and displacement camps crowded with children. Israel
is also legally responsible for failing to protect Palestinian children
from being targeted by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem, and for allowing, enabling and encouraging
ongoing settler violence, which serves to entrench settlements, annex
Palestinian land and force Palestinians off their land.
355. The killings continued even after the October 2025 ceasefire.
After October 2025, children continued being killed and injured in
various circumstances, including when approaching the so-called ‘yellow
line’, indicating Israel’s flagrant disregard of the terms of the
ceasefire. The Commission maintains that a ceasefire that allows Israeli
security forces to open fire on children crossing an ill-defined
boundary cannot credibly be seen as a cessation of hostilities. The
vague markings, absence of clear warnings, and lack of safe corridors
have turned the area into a death trap, particularly for children.
Egregiously, the ‘ceasefire’ has effectively solidified Israel’s
continuous occupation of Gaza, marked by restricted civilian movement
and attacks resulting in casualties, including children.
356. Based on its own investigations and documentation, the
Commission has concluded on reasonable grounds that following divisions,
brigades or units of the Israeli security forces may be responsible for
the killing and injuring of Palestinian children in Gaza and the West
Bank in the following incidents:
(a) Kfir Brigade for drone strikes and killing two brothers, aged 10
and nine, near Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on 29
November 2025.
(b) 162nd Division, specifically the 401st Brigade and Shayetet 13,
for throwing hand grenades inside a house with 30 family members,
severely injuring a five-year-old boy, and later shooting and killing
eight of his family members, including the boy’s seven-months pregnant
mother and the father, in Sheikh Radwan between 20 and 21 December 2023.
(c) 401st Brigade, under the 162nd Division, for shooting and killing
Hind Rajab and her extended family members, including Layan and other
children in the car, and shelling the PRCS ambulance, killing two
Palestinian humanitarian workers in Tel al-Hawa, Gaza City on 29 January
2024.
(d) 98th Division for shooting and killing a 15-year-old boy holding a
white flag and his brother using sniper rifle in the west of Khan
Younis on 24 January 2024.
(e) Multi-Dimensional Unit/Unit 888 or “Refaim” (Ghost) Unit, which
operates quadcopters,468 for shooting and injuring a 10-day-old baby boy
on 12 April 2024469 and a four-year-old girl on 24 August 2024.
(f) 99th Division for shooting and injuring an eight-year-old boy
using sniper rifle in the Bureij refugee camp on 10 December 2024.
(g) Duvdevan Unit for shooting and injuring two girls (and an elderly woman) in Anza, south of Jenin on 25 September 2024.
(h) “Jordan Valley and the Valleys Brigade” also known as the 417th
Territorial Brigade, for the killing of a 10-year-old boy, an
eight-year-old boy along with their 23-year-old male cousin through a
drone attack in Tammun Village on 8 January 2025.
(i) Menashe Brigade for shooting and killing a two-year-old girl in south Jenin on 25 January 2025.
(j) Ephraim Brigade for shooting and killing a 10-year-old boy in Tulkarem on 28 January 2025.
(k) Paratrooper Battalion, who were operating under the command of
the Menashe brigade, also known as the 431st Territorial Brigade, for
shooting and killing a 14-year-old boy in Al Faraa refugee camp on 16
November 2025.
357. Israeli attacks in Gaza have created a new generation of
Palestinian children who will now face a lifetime of disability that
will shape their sense of autonomy and agency over their own future.
Children now suffer from a myriad of compounding injuries which have
transformed them into long-term patients who will require repeated
surgeries and rehabilitation (services largely unavailable in Gaza) as
they grow, anchoring disability into every phase of their lives. As a
result, disability among Palestinian children has ceased to be an
individual medical condition and has now become a defining demographic
reality – a cohort of Palestinians growing up without one or more limbs,
with chronic pain, and visible and invisible scars.
358. Israel is responsible for causing a severe orphan crisis. The
Israeli security forces have orphaned thousands of Palestinian children
in Gaza. Compounding the situations of orphans, at least two orphanages
in Gaza have been damaged through direct and indirect attacks. Israel
has essentially turned these spaces of care into militarized zones
throughout their military campaign in Gaza.
359. Palestinian children from Gaza and the West Bank, especially
adolescent boys, have been arrested, tortured, and ill-treated in
Israeli prisons and detention facilities. Removing them from their
families and communities and punishing them based on their age and their
identity as Palestinians – or presuming they pose threats for future
acts they have not committed – raise critical issues of proportionality,
necessity and reasonableness under international law. They were held
with adults, routinely subjected to torture and physical violence,
without any access to lawyers, parents, or information about their
whereabouts. This has created prolonged uncertainty for their families,
amounting to enforced family separation. Their detention may also amount
to enforced disappearances.
360. The Commission has also documented incidents of sexual and
gender-based violence targeting Palestinian children, often during
arrests or in detention, causing severe physical and mental harm.
Consistent with the Commission’s previous findings on sexual violence
committed against Palestinians, Israeli security forces used sexual
violence as a tactic of war to punish, instil fear, and treat the bodies
of Palestinians, including children, as instruments of collective
shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered,
and intergenerational pattern of Israeli occupation and hostilities.
361. Israel’s deliberate attacks on hospitals, including those
serving children and newborns, systematically dismantled children’s
access to life sustaining care, undermining their survival as a
protected group. These attacks, including the forced closure of
paediatric hospitals, form part of a broader pattern of targeting
infrastructure essential to children – including newborns’ health and
survival. As Gaza’s healthcare system collapsed, injured children have
undergone procedures in overstretched or damaged facilities, often
without anaesthesia, sterile conditions, or postoperative care, leading
to lifelong harm and increased mortality. Healthcare facilities caring
for children were targeted and destroyed by Israeli security forces,
with the foreseeable effect of depriving children, including newborns,
of essential healthcare, causing long term physical and psychological
harm and preventable deaths. One egregious outcome is that Gaza now has
the highest concentration of child amputees in the world.
362. The Commission contends that Israel’s targeting and destruction
of neonatal and maternity healthcare infrastructures in Gaza has had
particularly severe impact on birth rates and infant health outcomes.
These attacks have disrupted prenatal care, induced maternal trauma, and
contributed to a systemic collapse of the neonatal healthcare system,
leading to a rise in miscarriages, premature births, low birth weights,
and neonatal mortality, as well as an array of congenital birth defects
that has induced lifelong vulnerabilities among newborns. Over two
years, the birth rate in Gaza has decreased, undermining the continuity
of the Palestinian population. The harming of Gazans’ reproductive
capacity and the denial of reproductive health care have inflicted
grave, disproportionate, and long-term harms on pregnant women and
newborns and future generations.
363. Israel’s use of starvation as a method of war, imposed through a
blockade and siege, has produced acute and chronic malnutrition among
children in Gaza, removing the basic conditions necessary for their
survival. Children, including newborns, have been deprived of calories,
proteins, and nutrients necessary for growth, with visible effects such
as damaged hair, skin, teeth, and paralysed limbs. Immunological
vulnerabilities have also contributed to the re-emergence of diseases
like polio. Growing food insecurity, destruction of healthcare, and
reduced immunization have severely undermined children’s health.
Israel’s use of starvation as a method of war has also caused severe
reproductive harms to women and girls, impacting all aspects of
reproduction, including pregnancy, childbirth, post-partum recovery and
lactation, as well as adversely impacted the health of newborns.
364. Israel’s attacks on schools in Gaza and the broader disruption
of access to education due to the conflict have resulted in the complete
removal of children’s education in the Gaza Strip. Repeated
bombardment, displacement, and the collapse of basic services have
severed years of schooling, weakening core skills like reading,
mathematics, memory retention, and structured study. Children in Gaza
have effectively been ‘left behind’ even if they have been able to
receive some informal learning in makeshift classrooms or online
classes. Disruption of education has also extended to the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem, where Israeli security forces and settlers
have closed schools, attacked students and schools, and interfered with
schooling. The Commission highlights that the cognitive damage caused by
disruption to education extends beyond lost years. It reconstructs
Palestinian childhood around survival rather than learning, particularly
in Gaza. By severing schooling, Israeli authorities have systematically
disrupted children’s ability to learn, thereby sabotaging the
intellectual and social foundations of Palestinian society itself.
365. Children in Gaza have been suffering from immense psychological
harm as a direct result of the hostilities and the deteriorating
conditions of life. They have been stripped of any sense of safety and
future. In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli military
operations, arrests and detention, checkpoints, raids, settler violence,
and constant surveillance have terrorised children and created a
pervasive sense of hopelessness among children. Israeli policies have
produced a constant situation of diffused, ambient terror, that does not
require constant bombing to remain effective. Mental harm has become
intergenerational, producing a distinctive “occupied psyche” in which
the freedom to play, imagine, hope, and develop an identity has been
eroded. Israel’s occupation and control have functioned as long term
mechanisms of domination, subjugation and oppression, thereby damaging
memory, identity and hope across generations.
366. Israeli soldiers in Gaza filming themselves destroying and
mocking children’s toys raise serious ethical, disciplinary, and legal
concerns, symbolising the dehumanization of Palestinian childhood
itself. The Commission considers that such acts were carried out in
order to show Israel’s dominance and control of the population by
reducing symbols of childhood into objects of debasement and ridicule
and Israel’s subversion of an entire community through the desecration
of shared possessions and spaces.
IX. Recommendations
A. To the Government of the State of Israel:
(a) Immediately halt military operations in Gaza, including in
populated areas in Gaza and close to the so-called ‘yellow line’;
strictly adhere to the principles of necessity, distinction and
precaution in the use of force; end the use of high-impact weapons in
residential areas, as well as quadcopters, drones and snipers; withdraw
all the Israeli security forces to the 1967 boundary between Gaza and
Israel;
(b) Immediately implement the orders for provisional measures of 26
January, 28 March and 24 May 2024 of the International Court of Justice
in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa
v. Israel) and the advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 in respect of the
Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and end the
unlawful occupation, including by ceasing all new settlement activity
and evacuating all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
(c) Immediately implement and comply with the recommendations made by
the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in September 2024;
(d) Ensure accountability for all those with responsibility for
crimes against and affecting Palestinian children, both individual
perpetrators and those in positions of political or military command
responsibility (including, but not limited to, the specific Israeli
military units identified by the Commission in this report – for
example, see Section. (VIII). Conclusions, para. 356);
(e) End arbitrary and administrative detention of children and use of
torture and ill-treatment; ensure that all children are treated in
accordance with international laws and juvenile justice standards
including the presumption of innocence and the obligation for humane
treatment; guarantee that detention is used only as a last resort, for
the shortest period, and that children are not held incommunicado;
(f) Ensure incidents involving children are adjudicated exclusively
by specialized civilian courts – not military courts – with expertise in
juvenile justice, in full compliance with international standards, and
end labelling Palestinian children as “terrorists” or security threats;
(g) Immediately release accurate data of children detainees,
including those detained from Gaza, and inform child detainees’ families
regularly about their place of detention and their condition;
(h) Immediately return the bodies of all deceased children to their
family members and end the practice of withholding bodies of children
and other Palestinian victims;
(i) End the practice of targeting healthcare facilities, educational
facilities and other facilities for children such as orphanages, and
ensure the urgent reconstruction of damaged facilities;
(j) Guarantee safe medical evacuation for injured children and family members and guarantee their return;
(k) Facilitate the safe, unrestricted and immediate entry of
humanitarian organisations and delivery of humanitarian assistance to
children, including medical care, food, and water;
(l) Take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of
Palestinians including children from settler violence, in accordance
with the Fourth Geneva Convention and the CRC, including through the
issuance and enforcement of clear orders to the Israeli security
forcesto protect the Palestinian population, and immediately dismantle
all outposts and ensure that they are not reestablished;
(m) Engage and hold structured dialogue with the Palestinian
authorities to establish joint protection mechanisms for Palestinian
children in Israelioccupied areas, ensuring that the security operations
of Israeli and Palestinian authorities prioritize the physical safety,
mental and physical wellbeing and basic rights of Palestinian children
in line with international child protection and child rights laws and
standards;
(n) Urgently develop an Action Plan in accordance with Israel’s
listing by the UN Secretary-General in relation to children and armed
conflict, under A/78/842- S/2024/384, in coordination with the UN, to
end grave violations against Palestinian children;
(o) Incorporate IHL and IHRL, including the special obligations
towards children under international law, into training, strategy and
military operations of the Israeli security forces and Israeli prison
services;
(p) Cooperate fully with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and
other international mechanisms investigating international crimes
committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
B. To all the Member States and those involved in ceasefire negotiations:
(a) Arrest any Israeli officials against whom arrest warrants have
been issued by the ICC and extradite them into the custody of the ICC;
(b) Employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the
commission of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and to
ensure full compliance with the Geneva Conventions in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory;
(c) Cease the transfer of arms and other equipment or items,
including jet fuel, to the State of Israel or third States where there
is reason to suspect their use in military trade or operations that have
involved or could involve the commission of genocide, war crimes or
crimes against humanity or other violations of the Geneva Conventions in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
(d) Conduct investigations under domestic or universal jurisdiction
of Israeli individuals or organisations suspected of having participated
in unlawful acts of violence against Palestinian children, including
Israeli suspects holding dual or multiple nationalities;
(e) Impose targeted sanctions, including prohibiting financial
dealings and revoking or denying visas of individual Israeli ministers
and officials and Israeli military personnel who may be responsible for
inciting or committing violence relating to the abuse, killing or
maiming of children;
(f) Impose targeted sanctions on extremist settlers, including a ban
on financial transactions and travel, as well as on private entities,
including charities, that support the settlement enterprise;
(g) Exhort Israel to end the siege of Gaza immediately, completely
and permanently and allow unhindered humanitarian access to deliver aid
and other support tailored to children’s needs in Gaza;
(h) Support political solutions and processes aimed at achieving
lasting peace in Palestine, based on the right of Palestinians to
self-determination and rooted in the principle of inclusivity and
ownership, engaging and listening to Palestinians, including children;
(i) Support and facilitate access to justice for victims of crimes
against children as a key component of any political solutions and
process.
C. To the UN Security Council:
(a) Prohibit all two-way military-related trade with Israel and
impose immediate, comprehensive sanctions, including travel bans, asset
freezes and financial restrictions, on Israeli officials in positions of
command responsibility, the leadership of the Israeli security forces
and those in military command positions, and soldiers serving in Gaza on
or since October 2023 who have or may have committed international
crimes;
(b) Hold a dedicated debate on the situation of children in
Palestine, taking stock of Israel’s compliance with ICJ’s Provisional
Measures of January, March and May 2024, and authorize enforcement
measures on Israel if it is found non-compliant.
D. To the UN General Assembly:
(a) Taking into account the advisory opinion of the International
Court of Justice of 19 July 2024, adopt a resolution calling on Member
States to prohibit all two-way military-related trade with Israel and
impose sanctions against Israel for its violations of international law
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
(b) Hold a stock-taking session on Israel’s compliance with General
Assembly resolution A/RES/ES-10/24 on implementation of the
International Court of Justice advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 in
respect of the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and
Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem.
E. To the UN Secretary General:
(a) Expand the existing listing of the Israeli Security and Armed
Forces in the annexes of the annual report on children and armed
conflict to also include abduction of Palestinian children, in line with
the findings of this report;
(b) List Israeli settlers, as an extension of the State of Israel, in
the annexes of the next annual report on children and armed conflict as
“persistent perpetrators”479 for child killing, maiming and sexual
violence;
(c) Issue dedicated, standalone country specific reports on the
situation of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel;
(d) Prioritize monitoring and reporting of sexual violence against
Palestinian children by Israeli security and armed forces, given the
alarming increase in incidents and patterns of such grave abuses;
(e) Incorporate ‘denial of humanitarian assistance’ in the future UN
Action Plan with Israel, given that the siege of Gaza by Israel has
caused severe malnutrition and preventable deaths of children;
(f) Closely monitor and report Israel’s deliberate ‘denial of
humanitarian assistance’ to Gaza which has had a profound, continued and
life-threatening impact on children, noting that the humanitarian
situation in Gaza meets all five primary categories of ‘denial of
humanitarian assistance’ under the CAAC agenda.
F. To the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court:
(a) Within the continuing investigation in the Situation in the State
of Palestine, give particular attention to crimes against and affecting
children, taking into account the principles outlined in its Policy on
Children;
(b) Examine the involvement of officials mentioned in this report and
others involved in crimes against and affecting children for inclusion
as those most responsible for international crimes committed in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory.
/…
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